Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)
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Question 206: To ask the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources if his attention has been drawn to the existence of green energy services companies; the support he has provided for these companies; the support he will provide for these companies; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9175/07]

Noel Dempsey (Meath, Fianna Fail)
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On 7 June 2006 I launched the Bioheat Programme which is a grant aid scheme for commercial renewable heat technologies. The scheme allows companies and small businesses to obtain grants for the installation of wood chip and wood pellet boilers in large buildings and commercial premises. Grant aid of up to 30% of overall costs is being made available depending on the overall size of the project. The scheme is being rolled out over a five year period and will potentially support the conversion to renewable energy in up to 600 installations depending on overall project sizes. A sum of €22m was originally made available for this scheme to 2010 and in Budget 2007 a further €4m was added to the programme, which is now being expanded to include solar and other renewable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.

On 3 August 2006 I launched an €11m grants package for Combined Heat and Power (CHP) to encourage industry and commercial users to generate their own electricity and heat. CHP units simultaneously generate heat and electricity in a single process on site. By combining these processes CHP saves around 25% of the energy that would have been required to produce electricity in a conventional power station and heat in separate heat-only boilers. The scheme is providing grant support to assist the deployment of small-scale fossil fired CHP (up to 1MWe) and biomass CHP systems.

This Government recognises the potential role for Energy Service Companies (ESCOs), which provide "whole energy solutions" to industry and utilities, in which the customer is guaranteed energy savings and/or the provision of the same level of energy service at lower cost through the implementation of an energy efficiency (or renewable energy) project.

ESCOs are eligible to apply for funding under the Bioheat and CHP programmes and a number of applications are currently being considered in this regard.

This year's budget allocated €3m in investment to allow Sustainable Energy Ireland (SEI) to extend the scope of its energy agreements with firms. As well as the new focus on SMEs the new initiative will include additional emphasis on the Energy Services sector.