Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)
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Question 780: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the efforts being made to develop wave energy projects here; if he will refer specifically to research and development projects in third level institutions here; if efforts are being conducted in collaboration with Northern Ireland; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28802/09]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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The Government's Ocean Energy Strategy includes a programme of grant support to companies developing full scale prototypes and the development of a test site for full scale electricity generation in County Mayo. The Ocean Energy Strategy is being overseen and implemented by the Ocean Energy Development Unit in Sustainable Energy Ireland working in partnership with all key players.

A key priority under the Strategy is to increase the research and design capabilities in ocean energy in Ireland. The wave-tank facility at the Hydraulics and Maritime Research Centre (HMRC), University College Cork, is Ireland's centre of excellence in ocean energy research, modelling and technical support for early stage device developers. The Centre's capabilities have been enhanced in recent years and it has been successful in securing significant EU project funding. The Centre also provides testing, modelling and technical advisory services to wave and tidal device developers.

The facility will continued to be enhanced with the provision of €2.5m of funding under the Ocean Energy Strategy to the upgrading of the existing wave basin test tank and research capabilities at the facility over the period 2008 to 2010. Research at the HMRC is also being supported through funding of over €3 million over 7 years, under the Parsons Initiative, initiated by my Department and managed by Science Foundation Ireland.

Other R&D initiatives in the ocean energy sphere include Innovation Partnerships, funded by Enterprise Ireland, involving collaborative research between third level and industry, at Limerick and Maynooth Universities.

The Ocean Energy Development Unit is also liaising closely with Northern Ireland colleagues on a number of initiatives, designed to deliver the benefits of ocean energy development for the economy of the island as a whole.

Two specific collaborations include a review of Engineering and Specialist Support Requirements for the ocean energy sector; and an economic study for ocean energy development. Both of these studies will inform the ongoing development and commercialisation of ocean energy on the island.

Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)
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Question 781: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources his plans to develop wind energy here; the efforts that have been made by public agencies and publicly funded universities or institutes of technology in this respect; if these efforts involve 32 county collaboration; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28803/09]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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The Government has set targets to increase the contribution from renewable energy sources to electricity consumed to 15% by 2010 and 40% by 2020. The All Island Grid Study published jointly by my Department and the Department of Enterprise, Trade & Investment Northern Ireland in 2008 confirmed that an all island target of 42% for renewable energy was technically feasible. There is ongoing liaison with Northern Ireland on progressing renewable energy objectives.

The primary support programme to achieve these targets is the Renewable Energy Feed-In Tariff (REFIT) which supports renewable energy plants exporting power into the grid. The available data on renewable energy projects with connection offers and awaiting connection offers under the Gate 3 process shows that the majority of projects are wind energy. In February last I announced measures to encourage the on-site micro-generation of electricity in domestic homes and farms from wind turbines and other renewable technologies. Among the measures is a guaranteed price up to 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 micro-generation installations countrywide over the next 3 years. In addition Sustainable Energy Ireland (SEI) has commenced an electricity micro-generation programme to support a number of micro-scale projects including wind turbines to resolve future technical issues including: requirements for the future certification of turbines and certification and training of installers.

Considerable research has been undertaken by the ESRI, SEI and third level institutions including UCD, UCC, DIT and Queens University, on the island of Ireland into the technical and market aspects of integrating significant amounts of wind and other renewable energy technologies into the island's electricity system. This research, together with ongoing R&D supports, from SEI in particular, is critically underpinning the accelerated delivery of our national and EU renewable energy targets.