Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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1667. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the number of wind farms located in counties Cavan and Monaghan, in tabular form; the number of turbines these farms have; if there are any plans for more wind farms; the stage these projects are at; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24786/16]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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The development and operation of a wind farm requires planning permission from the relevant planning authority or An Bord Pleanála, as appropriate. Planning permission is a matter between the developer of a wind farm and the relevant planning authority, subject to the Planning Acts, which include requirements for public consultation. Each planning authority must maintain a detailed register of all planning applications and decisions made under Section 7 of the Planning and Development Act.  An Bord Pleanála also maintain a register of cases determined by the Board which is available at www.pleanala.ie.

A wind farm development also requires an Authorisation to Construct or Reconstruct a Generating Station and a Licence to Generate from the Commission for Energy Regulation (CER). Applications for Authorisations and Licences are assessed by the CER ahead of the granting or refusing of an application for planning permission. The conditions imposed by the Regulator must be met by the generator, and compliance is monitored by the CER on an on-going basis. I do not have a role with regard to the permitting or monitoring of individual wind farms.

Eirgrid (the Transmission System Operator) and ESB Networks (the Distribution System Operator) provide online data on size and location of windfarms connected to the national grid. While EirGrid and ESB do not compile information on a county basis, information on the size and location of wind farms is publicly available on their websites at www.eirgridgroup.com and respectively. Figures provided by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI), based on EirGrid and ESB Networks' data, show that 5 windfarms are connected to the grid in Cavan and Monaghan. 

The 2009 EU Renewable Energy Directive 2009/28/EC set Ireland a legally binding target of meeting 16% of our energy requirements from renewable sources by 2020 and in order to meet this target, Ireland is committed to meeting 40% of electricity demand from renewable sources, 12% renewables in the heating sector and 10% in transport. The Government has adopted a range of support measures designed to meet our binding target, and although good progress towards our target has been made to date, meeting the 16% target remains challenging. It is expected that the majority of the 40% electricity target will be met by wind energy. Provisional data from the SEAI indicates that at the end of 2015, some 25.3% of electricity demand was met by renewable sources, of which wind accounted for 21.1% and we had reached 9.2% of the overall 16% target.