David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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Question 161: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources his views on the harnessing of wave and tidal energy and its viability as a power source; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37246/08]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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There is significant global investment in the development of ocean energy technologies to harness the substantial offshore wave and tidal resources. I have articulated my intention that Ireland will be a world leader in this technology. I have published a R&D programme operated by Sustainable Energy Ireland (SEI) to enable Ireland to win the race of developing a full-scale, commercially viable ocean energy device for generating electricity. In addition, the Energy White Paper has set a target of at least 500MW of installed ocean energy capacity to be delivered by 2020.

To deliver on this, we have established a dedicated Ocean Energy Development unit within SEI. This unit will oversee the development and roll out of an integrated system offering support from the initial development stages right through to commercial sale of the electricity produced. This year the unit will provide funding towards a world class, state-of-the-art National Ocean Energy facility in UCC. The Facility will now have an advanced wave basin for the development and testing of early ocean energy devices. It will also support the development of a grid-connected wave energy test site at Annagh/French Point near Belmullet, County Mayo.

The unit has also launched an Ocean Energy Prototype Fund which will help developers move through the various stages of device research, development and demonstration with a view towards making their devices commercial. To back this up, my Department has signalled a new feed in tariff rate of 22 cent per KiloWatt hour for wave and tidal devices.