Alex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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The Renewable Electricity Feed-in Tariff (REFIT) schemes are the principal means of supporting renewable electricity generators for renewable energy exported to the grid. The schemes operate by guaranteeing a minimum price for renewable energy generation over a 15 year period.There have been two REFIT schemes that provide support to onshore wind: the REFIT 1 scheme for which state aid approval was obtained in September 2007, and the REFIT 2 scheme which opened in March 2012. The support rates in euro per Mega watt hour generated for each scheme are as outlined in the table below.

Technology	2015 Tariffs per MWh (€)
Large Wind (above 5MW)	69.72
Small Wind (equal or less than 5MW)	72.167

The REFIT schemes are supported through the Public Service Obligation (PSO) levy which is a levy on all electricity customers and is the overall support mechanism for a number of different renewable and non-renewable security of supply plant. There was 1,874 MW of REFIT renewable generation capacity included in the 2014/15 PSO levy period which represents the total megawatts which have become eligible for REFIT payments. Overall, the total projected PSO amount set for the 2014/15 PSO period for the renewable support schemes is €94.3 million out of a total PSO levy of €350.4 million for this period.

There are also tax relief based incentives available such as the Employment and Investment Incentive (EII) Scheme which allows individual investors to obtain income tax relief on investments in renewable energy in each tax year and additional relief in future years if the business has expanded to employ a designated number of people (or if the investment was used for R&D). The scheme has an investment cap of €750,000 and may thus be suited to small industrial renewable energy projects. A number of financial services companies offer EII Funds or portfolios to investors.

The Accelerated Capital Allowance (ACA) scheme was first introduced in 2008 and extended in Budget 2015 for a further three years. The scheme allows companies to offset the cost of investment in qualifying renewable energy generation technologies, against their tax liabilities in year 1 rather than over a more prolonged period, thus aiding their cash flow.