Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he will outline his objectives in the context of this country’s reduction in its dependency on fossil fuels with particular reference to the development of alternative sources of electricity generation including wind, wave or hydro; the extent to which he expects to meet or exceed national and EU targets in this regard over the next ten years; if he will identify the extent to which the motor industry is likely to develop technology in tandem with this thereby reduce fuel import costs and meet carbon reduction targets; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4804/13]

Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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Directive 2009/28/EC known as the Renewable Energy Directive, assigns a legally binding target of 16% on Ireland for the share of renewables in energy consumption by 2020. This target has to be meet across the electricity, transport and heating sectors and a minimum of 10% in the transport sector is required. Ireland intends to meet the target through 40% renewable electricity, 10% renewable transport and 12% renewable heating, which amounts to 16% of overall energy consumption, commensurate with our target.

In terms of the 40% renewable electricity to be achieved by 2020, the ability to meet this is largely determined by the grid connection offers to renewable generators. The grid connection process is vested in the Commission for Energy Regulation (CER). CER published a Gate 3 direction in December 2008, which was specifically designed with the intention of providing for sufficient renewable energy grid connection offers to achieve 40% renewable electricity by 2020. In addition, the CER published a decision on the connection of small, low carbon renewable generators outside the Gate process (CER 09/99.) This mechanism specifically provides for the ability of small anaerobic digesters, biomass CHP plants, wave and tidal devices and other non-wind renewable low carbon generators to connect to the grid outside of the Gate process by 2020.

The Gate 3 grid connection direction includes a list of specific renewable generating projects to receive grid connections. It can be seen that the vast bulk of these are onshore wind developments. Hence, wind will make up the bulk of the delivery of the 40% renewable electricity target. In the First Progress Report on the National Renewable Energy Action Plan (NREAP), available on my Department’s website, the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) modelling indicated that 3,521MW of wind would be needed on the electricity grid by 2020 in order to achieve our 40% renewable electricity target. This is approximately a doubling on the current position.

In addition, the NREAP progress report modelling also forecasts other technologies contributing to our 40% renewable electricity target - 274MW of biomass technologies by 2020 as well as 75MW of wave and tidal technology. Hydro is expected to contribute 234MW in 2020, largely made up of the large hydropower stations and some smaller generators. There are several very small hydropower stations already operational in the REFIT schemes. Wave and tidal energy is still at the RD&D stage of development, however, it is anticipated that some early devices will be available by 2020. The biomass REFIT 3 scheme opened in 2012 and provides for up to 310MW of biomass generated electricity. The volume of applications received to date has been positive.

The target set under Directive 2009/28/EC is 16% of all energy consumption to be from renewable sources by 2020, up from 3.1% in 2005. At the end of 2012, SEAI estimates that 6.4% of consumption was from renewable sources. Achieving our 2020 target will be challenging, however I am confident that it can still be reached. The rapid development of 2nd generation biofuels will be critical in terms of renewable transport, while maintaining our grid development and grid build on track will be essential if we are to double the renewable electricity on our grid in the next 8 years.

In terms of transport, over the coming years, we will see an increase in the number of Electric Vehicles becoming available. To date, in Ireland, only a very limited number of full battery Electric Vehicle models have been available for consumers. I expect, possibly later this year, to see the introduction of Plugin Hybrid Electric Vehicles. Plugin Hybrids use both a battery and an internal combustion engine to power the vehicle using two different types of technology. One is an advanced version of hybrid technology which has been available for some years now, where the vehicle is powered by the battery and the engine takes over as the power in the battery drops. Unlike previous hybrids, Plugin Hybrids can be recharged by mains electricity between journeys thus reducing the requirement for the engine to do the same. The other technology uses the engine as a backup generator so that the vehicle is constantly powered by electricity. In this area, I also expect to see battery technology improve and journey ranges increase. I would also expect to see vehicles developed that can run on higher blends of biofuels. Most new petrol vehicles can now run on blends of up to 10% biofuel with diesels capable of handling up to 7% biodiesel.

Another area where we will see developments is in relation to vehicles being fuelled by gaseous fuels, such as Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), biogas and biomethane. Though CNG is a fossil fuel, it is cleaner than petrol or diesel producing between 11 and 20 per cent lower carbon emissions per unit of energy produced than diesel. Biogas, which can be produced locally by anaerobic digestion of waste and plant material, can also be used in certain vehicles, including some which run on CNG. Furthermore, biogas can be further processed to produce biomethane which can be used as a direct substitute for any Natural Gas product not only in the transport sector, but in the heat and electricity sectors also. Hydrogen is another fuel which is being looked at by some major motor manufacturers as a fuel for the future but it is uncertain when this technology will become widely available.