Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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Question 128: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the position regarding the progress made on the implementation of the new tariff scheme in respect of offshore wind; when this tariff scheme for offshore wind was announced by him; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43619/08]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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In February of this year I announced a tariff of €140 per megawatt hour of power produced for offshore wind energy projects within the Renewable Energy Feed In Tariff (REFIT) support scheme. This announcement was made well in advance of the planned development of offshore wind projects to send a strong market signal and to ensure all State aid requirements could be clarified and resolved in a timely way.

Under the existing State aid clearance for REFIT, all projects are required to be commenced by 2010. The imposition of this timeline was designed to ensure that Ireland met its 2010 target for renewable energy. My Department is now working to put in place more appropriate timelines to support progressive delivery on the 2020 target. Under the Commission's new Block Exemption Regulation, my Department is now in a position to adjust the REFIT timelines without notification to the Commission. The timeline for the offshore category should appropriately reflect the projections for actual delivery of connections to individual projects. A number of offshore projects are included in the list of Gate 3 projects for connection offers recently published by the Commission for Energy Regulation. It is expected these developers will be in a position to provide realistic projections of their commissioning plans to my Department shortly. I intend to publish amended timelines for all REFIT categories including the offshore category in the near future, which will facilitate delivery of our renewable energy target up to 2020.