Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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305. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he will provide a breakdown of the current micro generation feed in tariffs in operation as well as other financial incentives for each type of renewable energy including small scale wind, solar, including photovoltaic and small scale hydro and biomass,in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34363/16]

Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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307. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources his views on feed-in tariffs to incentivise micro generation for renewable energy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34365/16]

Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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308. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources when tariff support for photovoltaic solar energy production here will commence; the reason it is taking so long to progress; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34366/16]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 305, 307 and 308 together.

While I have no statutory function in the matter, I am aware that since February 2009 Electric Ireland has offered a feed-in tariff on a commercial basis to domestic microgenerators. I understand that Electric Ireland decided to close the scheme to new entrants from the end of 2014. More recently, Electric Ireland extended the tariff to their existing customers from the end of 2015 until the end of 2016. Electric Ireland publish details of the scheme on their website

To date, no other electricity supplier has chosen to provide such a tariff, to either domestic or commercial customers, although they have been invited to do so by the  CER.

The Renewable Electricity Feed-in Tariff (REFIT) schemes are the principal means of supporting renewable electricity generators for energy exported to the grid. These schemes, which are now closed for new applications, have proven successful at encouraging the development of renewable generation.  The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) has estimated that 25.3% of electricity was generated by renewable sources at end 2015.

The existing REFIT support schemes are underpinned by detailed economic analysis to ensure long-term certainty for investors and overall value for money for consumers.  The REFIT schemes assure a minimum price for each unit of electricity exported to the grid over a 15 year period and cover a range of different renewable energy technologies, including wind energy, biomass and hydro-generation and microgeneration. Solar technologies are not eligible for support under the REFIT schemes.

The Energy White Paper, published in December 2015, sets out a high-level framework for Ireland's energy transition to a low carbon economy and society and identifies a range of measures and actions to support this aim. One key action is to explore the scope to provide market support for microgeneration technologies.  

My Department is currently working on the development of a new Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS). While no decision has been taken on the precise renewable technologies to be supported, the cost and technical viability of a variety of technologies - including wind, solar photovoltaics (PV), hydro and biomass - are being examined as part of the on-going assessment process.

Once the economic analysis is complete, a further public consultation on the new scheme will be published. This consultation is expected in the first half of 2017 and details will be advertised on the Department’s website www.dccae.gov.ie. It is expected that the new scheme will be announced in late 2017, subject to Government approval and State aid clearance from the European Commission.

For the Deputy’s information, the REFIT reference prices for 2016 (in euro per megawatt hour) are available on this Department’s website and are provided in the following table.