Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 144: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the extent to which the national electricity grid now relies on fossil or alternative fuels, wind or other sources of energy; the progress made towards reducing dependance on imported or fossil fuels over the past ten years; the potential in the next five years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13126/12]

Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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The latest figures from EirGrid which cover the period to end December 2011 show that there is now 1630MW of wind connected to the electricity grid along with 237MW of hydro electricity and 46MW of other renewable generation – in total just over 1900MW. The latest official figures from the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) are that at the end of 2010, 14.8% of electricity consumption was from renewable sources. There has been a gradual increase in the period since 2003 and the statistics, using a new normalised calculation methodology provided for in Directive 2009/28/EC are as follows:

EirGrid estimates that renewable generation was around 18% of the fuel mix in 2011. Under the Renewable Energy Directive 2009/28/EC Ireland has been set a legally binding target for renewable energy as a proportion of all energy consumption that must be achieved by 2020. The National Renewable Energy Action Plan (NREAP) sets out that this overall 16% target will be achieved through 40% consumption of renewables in the electricity sector, 10% in the transport sector and 12% in the heat sector.

Renewable electricity is now the largest contributor to renewable energy consumption and is expected to contribute most to our 2020 target. The largest contribution in the electricity sector is expected to be made through generation from wind technologies, followed by biomass technologies. For the support of commercial renewable generation, my Department administers a renewable energy support mechanism known as the Renewable Energy Feed In Tariff (REFIT).

The latest modelling undertaken by the SEAI, ('Energy Forecasts for Ireland to 2020' [2011]), indicates that capacity of around 4000MW of renewable generation will be required on the system to deliver the 40% renewable electricity target by 2020.

In addition to the 1900MW already connected, there is around 1000MW from Gate 1 and Gate 2 which have contracted with the system operators and are scheduled to be built out and connected. Around 4,000MW of additional renewable capacity is provided for in the Gate 3 process. All Gate 3 offers have now issued, however it is not yet known what the final level of take-up of offers is. This should become clear this year, when constraint reports are issued by EirGrid, following which those in receipt of offers will have a fixed period within which to accept offers.