Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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198. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the progress his Department has made on making available a tariff to electricity customers who are producing electricity via solar or wind and who have capacity to supply electricity to the main grid for monetary gain; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22516/15]

Brendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael)
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200. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if it is intended to review the amount per unit of electricity paid to small wind turbines for power fed out to the national grid (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22615/15]

Alex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 198 and 200 together.

The overarching objective of the Government's energy policy is to ensure secure and sustainable supplies of competitively priced energy to all consumers.

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. The technologies supported include onshore wind energy, hydroelectricity, landfill gas, waste-to-energy and biomass technologies, including anaerobic digestion. Solar PV is not one of the qualifying technologies for this scheme. Further information is available on my Department's website, .

Analysis of the potential of microgeneration technologies such as small scale wind, solar (including photovoltaic) and small scale hydro, has been carried out by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI). The SEAI's findings, along with responses to the recent consultation on the Green Paper on Energy Policy in Ireland, will inform future policy on the provision of any market support for microgeneration, and will be taken into consideration in preparation of the White Paper on Energy which will be finalised in September this year.

Given the emerging policy context and the requirements of the EU internal market for electricity, my Department is commencing the process of developing a new support scheme for renewable electricity, to be available from 2016 onwards. A key component of this will be consideration of the available technologies, their cost effectiveness and the level of support required. The scheme will be subject to State Aid clearance and the initial public consultation on a new scheme will commence in the coming weeks.