Emmet Stagg (Kildare North, Labour)
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Question 94: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the grants available to businesses and domestic users who provide renewable energy through private wind turbines; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10561/08]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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I am firmly committed to the development of micro-generation in line with the Programme for Government and the Energy Policy White Paper. Work is ongoing to provide for a distributed grid connection system to encourage the development of micro-scale renewable power supplies and the introduction of smart electricity meters which can facilitate exports of electricity to the network from micro-scale plants. A successful micro-scale support programme requires a soundly based operational and regulatory environment and Sustainable Energy Ireland (SEI) is working in conjunction with the Commission for Energy Regulation (CER) to deliver this environment with the objective of launching a micro generation support programme in the coming months.

In addition to cooperating with the CER, ESB Networks and the suppliers, to roll out the national smart-metering programme, SEI will be implementing a number of micro-scale electricity generation projects as part of its Dundalk Sustainable Energy Zone programme, which will deliver real time data to assist in the design and delivery of the wider micro-scale support programme.