Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)
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Question 417: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if grant or assistance will be made available to most persons who wish to purchase wind turbines; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25896/09]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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The Sustainable Energy Ireland (SEI) electricity micro-generation programme is supporting a number of micro scale projects including wind turbines that are targeted at resolving technical issues including: defining the requirements for qualification and certification of technologies and defining necessary arrangements for qualification, certification and training of installers.

This will be achieved by part-funding and monitoring a number of field trials of the various wind and other technologies. Information on the programme is available on the SEI website at http://www.sei.ie/Grants/Microgenpilot/. These are interim measures to start the deployment of microgeneration. Following the trial period more permanent support measures will be considered for each technology.

In February 2009 I announced measures to encourage the on-site generation of electricity from wind turbines and other renewable technologies in homes and farms across Ireland. Among the measures is a guaranteed price of 19 cent per kilowatt hour for electricity produced and exported to the national grid. This feed-in tariff will apply to the first 4,000 microgeneration installations countrywide over the next 3 years. Local generators will have the ability to be paid by ESB for electricity that is surplus to their own requirements and export it back to the grid. Further details are be available from ESB Customer Supply:

http://www.esb.ie/esbnetworks/generator-connections/micro-gen-connections.jsp.

Large scale wind energy development is supported through the Renewable Energy Feed In Tariff (REFIT) support mechanism. Applicants, whether an individual or company, may submit an application at a fixed price based on technology and the capacity of the project. Applicants for REFIT must have planning permission and a grid connection offer for their projects and will be able to contract with any licensed electricity supplier up to the notified fixed prices. The reference price values and indexation permitted in REFIT are designed to deliver projects without recourse to grant aid. The terms and conditions of REFIT are available on the Department's website at www.dcenr.ie.