John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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Question 117: To ask the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources the support mechanism he will put in place to encourage the commercial development of new wind, wave or tidal off-shore electricity generation projects; and the level of each power source he envisages might be in place by 2020. [11489/07]

Noel Dempsey (Meath, Fianna Fail)
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Research and Development and other supports for ocean energy technologies will underpin delivery of the National Ocean Energy Strategy 2006-2020 and our target of 500 MW of installed ocean energy capacity by 2020.

Support for the deployment of wind energy will continue through the Renewable Energy Feed-it Tariff (REFIT) Programme and the Energy RTDI Programme.

Denis Naughten (Longford-Roscommon, Fine Gael)
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Question 118: To ask the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources the number of wind farm projects currently approved, constructed or pending which are awaiting admission to the national grid with particular reference to the need to increase the levels of wind generated electricity in accordance with proposals as set out in the Governments White Paper; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11458/07]

Noel Dempsey (Meath, Fianna Fail)
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EirGrid publishes details of the wind energy projects which are awaiting a connection offer to connect to the national grid on its website at www.eirgrid.ie. The grid connection application and delivery process is a matter for the appropriate network operator under the supervision of the Commission for Energy Regulation (CER). I have no statutory function in the matter.

The published data record there are 69 wind energy projects with a capacity of 744MW already connected to the national grid. There are a further 37 projects with a capacity of 547MW contracted for connections and a further 117 projects with a capacity of 1,300MW in the process of receiving connection offers and a further 99 projects with a capacity of 1,933MW at more preliminary stages in the connection process.