Caít Keane (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I raise another important issue, energy. The EU directive requires that by 2020, 16% of our energy must come from renewable sources. Only 7.1% of our energy comes from renewables. Today, Apple has invested $700 billion in solar energy and will create a plant in San Francisco, which will do good for the world and climate change. I congratulate Dublin City Council which also announced today that it will install solar panels on four of its libraries and the Civic Offices, which will save the council €21,000. I seek a renewed debate on renewable energy. Of our renewable energy, 46% comes from wind and 43% from biomass with only a small proportion coming from solar. People might say I am mad thinking about solar energy. I am not. There are new types of panels. The biggest solar power facility in the world is in Leipzig, Germany and a new report has found that Dublin would benefit in the same way as Germany from solar energy, not just from sun but from daylight. I seek renewed debate and action to ensure we provide more of our energy using renewable sources and discuss how we will do it. We are approaching 2020. It will be upon us before we know it. We are in the throes of discussing climate change and the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Bill. We had a good debate here before. I compliment Jody Corcoran, who had an article on wind energy in the Sunday Independent. He wrote that he was walking beside wind turbines and they were like a lady's skirt blowing in the wind.