Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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464. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he will confirm that offshore wind is being considered in helping Ireland reach its renewable targets for 2020 (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33421/16]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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The EU Renewable Energy Directive set Ireland a legally binding target of meeting 16% of our energy demand from renewable sources by 2020. Ireland is committed to achieving this target through meeting 40% of electricity demand, 12% of heat and 10% of transport from renewable energy sources. The Government has a range of policy measures and schemes to incentivise the use of renewable energy and although good progress towards the target has been made to date, meeting the 16% target remains challenging. The Renewable Energy Feed-in-Tariff schemes support the development of a range of renewable electricity technologies including hydro, biomass combustion, biomass combined heat and power, landfill gas and onshore wind. Figures provided by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) for 2015  indicate that 9.1% of the overall 16% target was met and that 25.3% of electricity was generated by renewable sources, of which 22.8% was generated by onshore wind. 

In addition to our onshore wind resource, bioenergy, solar, offshore wind and other technologies may play a role in diversifying our renewable generation portfolio over the period to 2030. The 2014 Offshore Renewable Energy Development Plan (OREDP) sets out Government policy in relation to the sustainable development of our indigenous offshore wind, wave and tidal energy resources.

My Department is currently developing a proposed new Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS). In-depth economic analysis is underway to inform the actual cost of a new scheme and, while no decision has been taken on the precise renewable technologies to be supported, the costand technical viability of solar photovoltaic (PV), bio-energy and offshore wind are being examined as part of the assessment process.

The latest report provided by Ireland to the European Commission - the Third Progress Report on the National Renewable Energy Action Plan (NREAP) shows that 8.6% of our energy was met from renewable sources at end 2014, which was ahead of the indicative trajectory of 6.98% set out in Statutory Instrument (SI) No. 483 of 2014.

The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI), has estimated that the cost to Ireland of not meeting our overall renewable energy targets may be in the range of €100 million to €150 million for each percentage point Ireland falls short of the overall 16% renewable energy target.