Written answers

Wednesday, 14 February 2007

Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources

Electricity Generation

10:00 pm

Photo of Olivia MitchellOlivia Mitchell (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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Question 132: To ask the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources the action he will take to ensure the development of clean energy here in line with the best practice achieved to date throughout Europe; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5419/07]

Photo of Noel DempseyNoel Dempsey (Meath, Fianna Fail)
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The support programmes put in place by the Government have more than doubled the combined generation capacity of clean renewable energy powered electricity generating plants connected to the electricity network in the last three years.

The related EU target is set out in "Directive 2001/77/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 September 2001 on the promotion of electricity produced from renewable energy sources in the internal electricity market". The Directive requires Ireland to increase the consumption of electricity from renewable energy sources to 13.2% of total consumption by 2010. Building on our achievements to date we have set a national target of 15% by 2010. Ireland will therefore not only achieve the EU target but will surpass it for 2010.

I have signalled my intention this week to introduce a Biofuels Obligation by 2009, which will require all fuel suppliers to ensure that biofuels represent a certain percentage of their annual fuel sales. In announcing the move to an obligation, I have also committed to achieving 5.75% market penetration of biofuels by 2009, in advance of the date proposed for such a target in the EU Biofuels Directive. We have also committed to achieving 10% market penetration of biofuels in Ireland by 2010, in line with current EU thinking in relation to 2020 targets.

We have also signalled a target of 5% of Ireland's heating needs to be met from renewable energy sources (i.e. biomass) by 2010. The forthcoming BioEnergy Action Plan and White Paper on Energy Policy will set out our targets and strategies including development and deployment of the relevant technologies. Our initiative precedes any establishment of targets for the heating sector at EU level.

A number of innovative alternative energy programmes are already in place which provide funding for the domestic, commercial, services and industrial sectors as follows: The "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 overall funding available for this scheme over the five year period to 2010 is now €47m which includes an additional €20m which I secured in Budget 2007.

The Bioheat grants programme provides grants for commercial scale wood biomass boilers aimed at the business and services sectors. A sum of €22 million was originally made available for this scheme to 2010 and in Budget 2007 a further €4 million was added to the programme, which is now being expanded to include solar and other renewable technologies, and to allow community and voluntary groups to avail of the grants.

The €11 million 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 November 2006 I announced sixteen successful biofuels projects under a five-year excise relief programme for biofuels, valued at over €200m. The programme builds on a pilot initiative rolled out in 2005, in which eight biofuels projects were granted excise relief over a two-year period. In June 2006, I launched the Renewable Energy Feed-in-Tariff which is providing a fixed feed-in-tariff for renewable electricity over a fifteen year period.

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