Fiona O'Malley (Dún Laoghaire, Progressive Democrats)
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Question 277: To ask the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources the position regarding the offer of contracts to the offshore section of AER VI; if, in view of the fact that state aids clearance from the EU was granted in August 2004, and the way was therefore cleared for offers to be made, if his Department has instructed the ESB to make an offer to a consortium (details supplied) for a 50 MW contract; and if so, if this consortium has accepted the offer. [3773/05]

Noel Dempsey (Meath, Fianna Fail)
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I allocated additional capacity in the AER VI competition on 13 December last.

This announcement also confirmed the offer of contracts to two separate offshore wind demonstration projects of 25 MW each. Conditional offers of contracts have been accepted in respect of the winning projects in the offshore wind category.

The formal contracts, in the form of power purchase agreements, are issued by ESB customer service. However, ESB customer service will not be in a position to execute the power purchase agreements until a related order under section 39 of the Electricity Regulation Act 1999 is published. My Department is awaiting additional information in respect of a small number of projects which were announced in December last in order to facilitate the maximum number of projects in the order. My Department is seeking to expedite this matter.