Alex White (Dublin South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Whelan for raising this issue and I welcome the opportunity to address Senators on the topic.

The Senator referred to Ireland's national renewable energy action plan, NREAP, which states that we aim to meet our overall 16% renewable energy target by 2020 by achieving 40% of electricity demand from renewable sources, as well as 10% in transport and 12% in heating. I agree that energy from biomass has a critical role in meeting these ambitions for 2020 and beyond. It may interest the Senator and colleagues to know that provisional figures for 2014 show that biomass accounted for 3.6 percentage points of the 8.6 percentage points delivered by renewables, representing something in the order of 40%, which is not insignificant.

Recognising the potential to develop the bioenergy sector significantly and to address the challenges involved, I published a draft bioenergy plan last October. Analysis underpinning the draft plan demonstrates that an additional bioenergy-focused measure in the heating sector would represent the most cost-effective means of meeting a number of our policy goals. It is therefore my intention, subject to further Government approval and state aid clearance, to introduce a renewable heat incentive, RHI, in 2016. This would encourage larger heat users to change to systems that produce heat from renewable sources. The scheme is being designed to increase the amount of heat generated from renewable sources, including biomass.

There has been no delay in developing the scheme. Work is under way on developing its terms and conditions, the criteria and so on to which the Senator referred, including those relating to support tariffs and eligible technologies. These must be designed appropriately in order to ensure that the objectives of the scheme are met cost-effectively. It is important that the scheme provide maximum value for money and minimise cost to the Exchequer.

The first of three public consultations which are required to be held during the development of the RHI will commence shortly. In the meantime, my officials are considering the best ways of supporting continued investment in renewable heating solutions.