Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Green Party)
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Question 100: To ask the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources the measures he intends to take to promote the development of micro scale renewable energy here, as is requested under EU Directive 2001/77/EC. [34539/05]

Noel Dempsey (Meath, Fianna Fail)
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The legislative measures required to meet the obligations addressed to Ireland in EU Directive 2001/77/EC had previously been implemented in the Electricity Regulation Act, which liberalised the entire green electricity market prior to the directive. This legislative base is supplemented by decisions from time to time by the Commission for Energy Regulation regulating the electricity market generally.

In addition, Sustainable Energy Ireland, SEI, commissioned a study to examine the metering options for small scale renewable and CHP generation in Ireland. The study report, Metering Options for Small-Scale Renewable and CHP Electricity Generation in Ireland, was completed in August 2005 and is now published. The study provides a comprehensive technical, financial and economic analysis of the options for metering small scale renewable and CHP electricity generation. The purpose of the study was to identify suitable policy options taking into account the complex technical and administrative issues involved. Further work in this area looking at the issue of connection standards for small scale electricity generators will be addressed shortly by SEI.

Under SEI's house of tomorrow research, development and demonstration programme, financial support is directed at encouraging developers of housing, both new build and refurbishment, to incorporate design and technology features which deliver significantly superior energy and CO2 performance. By targeting developers of schemes of houses, from the private or social housing sectors, the aim has been to establish, over a number of years, a nationwide network of accessible examples of more sustainable energy design and technology practices. There is a total of 55 housing demonstration projects and 2,650 homes have benefited from this programme to date. The technologies installed include: condensing boilers — 1,708 homes; solar water heating — 531 homes; heat recovery ventilation — 381 homes; ground source heat pumps — 176 homes; wood pellet boilers — 308 homes.