Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 123: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the progress made to date in the provision of alternative energy generated electricity; the degree to which wind generation and other alternatives now contribute to the national grid, if he will outline the number and type of projects pending in the form of awaiting planning permission or other statutory approval; the extent to which any such projects are likely to contribute to the national grid over the next five years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30659/12]

Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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Currently approximately 1900MW of renewable generation is connected to the grid including over 1600MW of wind generation, small and large hydro generation and some small amounts of biomass generation including landfill gas.

In order to connect to the electricity grid, generators require a grid connection offer. Supervision of the grid connection process, including access to offers, is the statutory responsibility of the Commission for Energy Regulation (CER). The Gate process was put in place by the CER following public consultation. It is a group processing approach (GPA) towards the processing and issuance of grid connection offers to renewable generators.

To date there have been 3 Gates. Under Gate 1 and Gate 2, 1755MW of connection offers were made and accepted. Under Gate 3, 3900MW of offers have issued to renewable generators. In addition to the 1900MW of renewable generation already connected to the grid, 1500MW of renewable generation has already contracted for grid connection build with either EirGrid or ESB Networks. For the most part, these are projects from Gate 1 and Gate 2 that are still awaiting grid build-out, along with about 500MW from Gate 3.

The latest forecasts from the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) as to the amount of renewable generation required to meet our 40% renewable electricity target is 4000MW, provided we achieve our energy efficiency goals. The take up of Gate 3 offers cannot be quantified as yet. A small number of those in Gate 3 have accepted their offers to date and have already contracted with EirGrid or ESB Networks. Others in Gate 3 have not yet made a decision on whether they are accepting their offer or not, pending the issuing of constraint reports by EirGrid. EirGrid is currently working on producing these constraint reports which are subject to Single Electricity Market (SEM) decisions and once issued those in Gate 3 applicants will have a short period of time within which to accept or reject their offer and to pay their deposit.

It is expected that between what is already built in Gate 1 and Gate 2 and what has already contracted to build along with the remainder of Gate 3 is largely sufficient for the achievement of our 40% target, even if some Gate 3 developers ultimately decide not to accept their offer. Details regarding number and type of renewable energy projects awaiting planning permission are available from the relevant planning authority. In order to be accepted into the Renewable Energy Feed In Tariff scheme (REFIT), administered by the Department of Communications, Energy & Natural Resources, applicants must have both a grid connection offer and planning permission.