Written answers

Wednesday, 17 September 2014

Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources

Energy Resources

Photo of Thomas PringleThomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent)
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1646. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources his plans to introduce a household tariff for solar PV; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34209/14]

Photo of Alex WhiteAlex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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The overarching objective of the Government's energy policy is to ensure secure and sustainable supplies of competitively priced energy to all consumers. Ireland is committed to meeting 40% of electricity demand, 12% of heating and 10% of transport power from renewable sources by 2020. At the end of 2012, 19.6% of Ireland’s electricity requirements came from renewable sources with 5.2% of our heat requirement and 2.4% of energy in transport coming from renewables. This equated to 7.1% of overall energy coming from renewables.

Wind energy has proved to be the most commercial technology in the Irish market and provisional figures for 2013 indicate that 16.4% of energy demand in the electricity sector was met from wind. This trend is expected to continue to 2020.

Beyond 2020, discussions are ongoing at EU level regarding 2030 targets in order to continue the path towards decarbonisation in a cost effective and equitable manner, that takes full account of the specific circumstances of individual Member States.

In parallel, my Department is currently considering the responses to the consultation on the Green Paper on Energy. The Green Paper, inter alia, sought feedback on the role that alternative technologies, such as solar, could play in delivering our renewable energy ambitions. The paper also sought views on the role of microgeneration to empower citizens through decarbonisation of the home, the cost effectiveness of its deployment, supports it would require, and who should bear the costs of any support. The views will be taken into consideration in preparation of White Paper on Energy which will be finalised in 2015.

It is important to note that Electric Ireland has been offering a tariff for domestic microgeneration since February 2009. No other electricity supply company has to date chosen to offer a domestic microgeneration tariff, although the Commission for Energy Regulation invited them to do so. In addition, no company has opted to offer a tariff for microgeneration to the commercial and industrial sectors.

Photo of Thomas PringleThomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent)
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1647. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources his views on the increase in recent years of the use of coal as a power generation fuel and its contribution to the overall carbon content of the electricity generation fuels; his further views that as consumers here are paying subsidies through REFIT to decarbonise the power sector that the buying of cheap high impact imported coal would appear to be inconsistent and contradictory to the decarbonisation strategy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34210/14]

Photo of Alex WhiteAlex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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The overarching objective of the Government's energy policy is to ensure secure and sustainable supplies of competitively priced energy to all consumers. Coal has played a larger part in our energy mix in recent years, with the predominant increase coming in power generation, primarily due to its competitiveness. Coal's enhanced competitiveness as an energy source is caused by its low price due to increased supplies, particularly from the USA.

Security of energy supply is crucial to every society and economy. A well balanced fuel mix that provides reliable energy, minimises costs, and protects against supply disruptions and price volatility, is essential to Irish consumers and businesses. Our heavy reliance on imported fossil fuels to meet our energy needs, is predicted to continue for some time to come, as outlined in the SEAI publication "Energy Forecasts for Ireland to 2020".

However, progress is being made towards increasing the share of renewable energy in our generation portfolio. The 2009 EU Renewable Energy Directive set Ireland a legally binding target of meeting 16% of our energy requirements from renewable sources by 2020, to be achieved through 40% renewables in electricity, 12% in heat and 10% in transport. In order to support the development of renewable electricity generation, policy interventions, such as REFIT, are designed to incentivise the market to deliver the necessary renewable generation capacity.

In its Annual Renewable report 2013, EirGrid estimated that meeting the 40% renewable electricity targets in Ireland would reduce the CO2 intensity of emissions in the power sector from 489g/kWh in 2011 to approximately 300g/kWh in 2020, representing an improvement of 38%.

Choices regarding technology for energy generation are commercial matters for the operators and I have no role or function in this regard. However, I am currently in the process of developing a new Energy Policy White Paper which will set out Ireland’s energy policy for the coming years. To facilitate the development of the new White Paper, a Green Paper was published in May 2014 commencing a public consultation period that concluded on 31 July 2014 and one of the issues raised in the Green Paper relates to the future of the coal plant at Moneypoint. Over 1,200 submissions were received on the Green Paper as part of that process and my officials are currently reviewing all of the submissions received.

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