Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 128: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources his views on combined heat and power in public buildings; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3390/10]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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Combined Heat and Power (CHP) is a highly efficient way of generating onsite heat and electricity simultaneously. It can offer significantly reduced energy bills for the end user and is a particularly efficient form of energy generation as it minimises any transmission losses involved in getting power to the site.

Traditionally, CHP plants were only used in large industrial units with a high on-site heat load. Increasingly the technology is developing higher efficiency, smaller scale units that are capable of servicing smaller buildings and even down to individual residential scale units.

As this technology becomes more common in the market, smaller commercial premises, including public buildings, can now reduce their energy costs by installing CHP systems.

Sustainable Energy Ireland (SEI), administers the Deployment Programme for CHP technologies. The programme was expanded in early 2008 to include dedicated support for Biomass and Anaerobic Digestion powered CHP.

Under the Deployment Programme, SEI has supported 9 hospitals with a total capacity of 1.7 MWe and 5 educational establishments with a total capacity of 1.36 MWe at a cost of over €650,000.

The Renewable Heat Deployment Programme (ReHeat), which incentivises the installation of biomass boilers, is also open to institutional users of heat, and has already supported the construction of a number of projects where the heat load was not sufficient to justify the expense of a CHP plant.

Taken together, CHP technologies and the projects supported by Reheat offer a real and immediate solution to energy costs in public sector buildings by reducing the cost of power and increasing the overall energy efficiency of the buildings.

CHP, in conjunction with the other measures in the National Energy Efficiency Action Plan, including the Energy Demand Reduction Target Programme (EDRT), will provide a more energy efficient and cheaper generation option for public sector buildings which will help ensure that the overall public sector target of 33% improvement in overall energy efficiency is met.

The detailed design and specification of the new EDRT programme is being finalised between my Department and SEI. The programme will be the subject of public consultation in the near future. In that process the inclusion of CHP, particularly for the commercial and public sector will be considered.