Paul Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, Senator Hackett, to the House to deal with this issue. It is straightforward. As the Minister of State is well aware, the targeted agricultural modernisation schemes, better known as TAMS, have been modified. I warmly welcome the exceptional opportunity afforded to farmers to avail of a grant of up to 60% to install solar panels, up to a maximum expenditure limit of €90,000, and believe the initiative is brilliant. However, by virtue of the fact that the money is EU money, with associated rules along the lines of state aid rules, the EU has stipulated that the electricity produced by grant-aided panels may be used only on the farm on which it is generated. This eliminates the opportunity to export excess power to the grid at a time when the EU is calling emergency summit after emergency summit and meeting after meeting to discuss energy shortages. Dumping excess energy, rather than exporting it to the grid for use in a constructive manner, sends out the wrong message and narrative.

The farming community is being disincentivised from going down the road of solar. If there were some economic potential associated with the excess power produced, we would have a lot more buy-in. The Minister of State is from rural Ireland and is as aware as I am of the vast number of farm shed roofs and the potential for solar panels. There is considerable potential, but, as long as excess power is being dumped rather than being fed into the grid, we will not have the buy-in we require. Considering the exceptional times we are in and the global energy crisis, the Department needs to find out from the EU authorities whether there is a way around this. Even something along the lines of a contract whereby the farmer would get credit during the winter for power he produces during the summer could be considered. Anything that would avoid the dumping of energy produced would be beneficial. It smells terribly of ticking a box whereby the State can congratulate itself on being brilliant at putting in loads of solar panels. This will not result in our getting the maximum benefit from them.

I welcome the initiative and scheme but, without pre-empting the Minister of State’s answer, I believe the solution is in Europe. I urge her Department to contact the EU authorities to see whether we can reverse the policy. If there were an incentive of some sort and financial potential associated with the exportation of surplus power to the grid, there would be a lot more buy-in. It would enhance our drive to go green in the agriculture sector and alleviate the problems associated with some, but not all, of the energy shortages from which we are currently suffering.