Ivor Callely (Dublin North Central, Fianna Fail)
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Question 101: To ask the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources the alternative energy services that have been given consideration by his Department; the status of alternative energy projects and results of same; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38716/06]

Shane McEntee (Meath, Fine Gael)
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Question 145: To ask the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources his preferred options for the incentivisation of alternative energy production; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38806/06]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 425: To ask the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources his proposals for setting up alternative or bio-fuel infrastructure or support services with a view to increasing availability and access and developing the industry in order to improve Ireland's compliance with Kyoto principles and the need to reduce dependence on imported fuels; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39205/06]

Noel Dempsey (Meath, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 101, 145 and 425 together.

A number of innovative alternative energy programmes are in place as part of a €65m initiative announced last year. The programme is being rolled-out over a five year period and provides funding for the domestic, commercial, services and industrial sectors as follows:

The €27m 'Greener Homes' domestic renewable heat grants programme is providing grants for householders for the purpose of installing renewable heating including wood biomass boilers and stoves, solar panels and heat pumps.

The €22m Bioheat grants programme provides grants for commercial scale wood biomass boilers aimed at the business and services sectors.

The €11m Combined Heat and Power grants programme is providing funding for the commercial sector to switch to more efficient electricity and heat generation.

In addition to these funding measures, a number of other financial initiatives have been introduced:

In July, I launched a five-year excise relief programme for biofuels, valued at over €200m. The successful applicants under this scheme will be announced shortly. The programme builds on a pilot initiative rolled out in 2005, in which eight biofuels project were granted excise relief over a two-year period.

In June, I launched the Renewable Energy Feed-in-Tariff which is providing a fixed feed-in-tariff for renewable electricity over a fifteen year period.

The Bio-energy Ministerial Task Force, which I established in July this year, will develop, by end-year a cohesive national bioenergy strategy including biofuels. Further initiatives including the question of additional supports are being considered in the context of the Green Paper on Energy Policy, and the Estimates and Budgetary processes.

The Renewables Directive (2001/77/EC) obliges Ireland to develop and implement a programme capable of increasing the amount of electricity from renewable energy sources to 13.2% of total consumption by 2010. We have proposed a target of 30% by 2020 in the Green Paper.

The target of 13.2% approximates to 1450 megawatts (MW) of installed generating capacity to be operational to the electricity network by 2010. Currently Ireland has over 940MW of renewable capacity connected. This consists of approximately 670MWs of wind-powered plant, 236MW of hydro powered plant with the balance (c. 35MWs) made up of different biomass technologies. The additional new capacity required to achieve the target will be delivered by projects already selected under the AER VI competition and the new Renewable Energy Feed In Tariff (REFIT) programme I launched on 1st May last.

On 29th September I announced the first tranche of support under REFIT to over fifty new renewable powered electricity generating plants. The combined capacity of these projects is over 600 megawatts (MW), with wind-power accounting for most of the new support. Full details of REFIT and the successful applicants are available on my Department's website at www.dcmnr.ie.