Paul Daly (Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | 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.

Pippa Hackett (Green Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for raising this matter. This is a pertinent issue that arises frequently.

I welcome the opportunity to provide an update on solar applications for farmers under TAMS. TAMS is an on-farm investment scheme co-funded by the EU. Under the current EU regulations and the new CAP strategic plan, it is not permitted to sell excess energy generated by grant-aided investments to the grid. Energy generated can be consumed only on the holding. That is the nature of the grant.

The solar photovoltaic, PV, systems currently grant-aided under TAMS include solar PV panels and solar PV rechargeable batteries and solar panels – solar thermal – for water heating under the pig and poultry capital investment scheme. An on-farm solar PV survey must be completed and submitted with the application to quantify the holding’s electricity power requirement and the planned electricity supply from the proposed development. Again, we are aligning the installation of panels with consumption on the farm because that is the intent of the grant under the TAMS. An application may be rejected or amended if the applicant cannot demonstrate that all of the electricity produced from the PV panels will be consumed on the agricultural holding. As such, any applicant under the TAMS will not, when generation is averaged over the year, have excess electricity to sell to the grid. It is balanced with the delivery of power from the solar panels.

My colleague the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, recently announced on foot of the budget that the electricity consumption of the dwelling house can now be included with immediate effect on the solar survey as part of the holding for sizing the solar PV installation. The dwelling house must be occupied by the herd owner or family member and situated on the holding. This is now open for application.

It is interesting to note that solar investments were initially included only in the pigs and poultry investment scheme launched in August 2015 and were subsequently added to the remaining TAMS on a pilot basis in 2019. It is very useful and has been well subscribed. To date, my Department has paid grant aid to 161 beneficiaries in respect of solar installations on farms. The maximum size of panels eligible for grant aid currently is 62 kW for the pig and poultry scheme and 11 kW for all other eligible TAMS II schemes.To encourage further increased uptake in solar applications, my Department is proposing to make further changes to the scheme. This includes increasing the kilowatts for solar applications in TAMS 3 to 30 kW from 11 kW currently. This will bring in more high-energy intensive farms and cover their ever-increasing electricity usage and costs through on-farm generation.

We are also retaining the current limit of 62 kW remaining for the pigs and poultry investment scheme. It is proposed that the grant rate will increase to a 60% grant and a stand-alone investment ceiling of €90,000 for solar panels on farms from 2023 onwards. In a time of rising energy costs, the scheme will enable every farmer to generate their own power for their dwelling and holding, and will help to achieve a more sustainable rural economy, assisting farmers in reducing energy costs on their holdings. The changes are subject to approval of the rural development plan, RDP, amendment by the European Commission. The amendment is currently with the monitoring committee of the RDP for its views before its formal submission to the Commission.

TAMS is not the only option for farmers. There are other State supports for the installation of solar panels, including from the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI, and farmers should examine all options for support. Panels can be installed in tandem with the TAMS investment. For those farmers who wish to do this at scale, this is a further option for those keen to explore renewable energy generation which can be sold into the grid.

Paul Daly (Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I accept the Minister of State's answer. As I said in my initial summation of the issue, the Department at least needs to put the question to Europe. A lot of money is available and is being expended. Neither the State nor the European Union is getting full value for it. The terms and conditions of the scheme stipulate that farmers cannot supply energy to any organisation outside their holding. Those requirements were probably penned long before the illegal invasion of Ukraine by Russia and before many of the problems we have today arose. The matter needs to be revisited and we need to be to the fore in asking if it can be reconsidered in the European Union.

Everybody here thinks of dairy farms which have high consumption. Some beef farms have considerable roof space. Those farmers are not milking cows or weaning. They are using little or no power and have massive potential to provide energy to the grid or to their local community in some way. We keep talking around these issues. There are solutions and we do not seem to be prepared to grasp the nettle. The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine should be banging on the door, as it were, in Brussels to find out if this can be changed given our new circumstances on the back of the illegal war and the energy crisis we face.

Pippa Hackett (Green Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

This has come up on a number of occasions in recent months and indeed years. I understand we have examined this with the Commission. I agree some farms have roof space, but that potential will not be achieved through the TAMS grant which is for the purpose of consumption on the farm and those are the rules attached to it. However, it does not stop farmers examining other options and possibly coming together in a community energy setting. There are examples across Ireland where communities have come together to generate their own energy and generate incomes from that. I do not see why farmers should be any different. I encourage farmers who are interested in this to reach out to the SEAI and come together.

In recent weeks I have held meetings with farmers in attendance. It is a sustainable energy community and there is scope. If my Department can provide support to do that, I am happy to reach out and we will see what there is. Unfortunately, the TAMS grant does not have to scope to do this because it is ultimately for self-consumption. If farmers do not use what they are meant to be using, unfortunately, it will be wasted.