James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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273. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the current status of the renewable heat incentive and other relevant measures to support the sector; if purchases of a biomass boiler from January 2017 onwards will be included in the renewable heat incentive; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38153/16]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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The introduction of a Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) is a commitment in the Programme for Government and will be the primary support mechanism in the heating sector designed to meet Ireland’s renewable energy obligations.  The aim of the RHI is to build on the progress already made in the renewable heating sector and to help reach Ireland’s 12% target by 2020. In 2015, 6.5% of heat was derived from renewable sources in Ireland.

Over the last few months, my Department has undertaken a detailed economic assessment on the design and cost of the RHI and this work is now almost complete.  This assessment included a range of renewable energy technologies - including biomass - and focused on the approximately 3,000 large commercial and industrial heat users in the non-Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) in Ireland.

The focus on the larger heat users was underpinned by analysis completed in 2014 which indicated that it would not be cost effective, at this stage, to include the domestic heating sector in the RHI.  This is due to a number of factors including the much higher support tariff per kilowatt hour of energy that would be required to incentivise households to change heating systems, as well as the significantly greater costs associated with administering the scheme for a large number of households in what is an unregulated sector.

In order to support on-going investment in renewable heat installations, the Department will seek clearance from the European Commission that RHI support can apply to RHI applicants, who meet the criteria of the scheme, and were completed and first commissioned between the Government announcement on the RHI in 2014 and the start date of the RHI. A final decision on whether this will be facilitated is a matter for the European Commission to decide and will be formally announced at the time the scheme is cleared by the European Commission.

There will be an additional public consultation phase on the design of the new scheme before the end of the year. Details will be posted on the Department’s website  .  Before the RHI is introduced, the overall costs and technologies to be supported will be subject to Government approval and State aid clearance from the European Commission.  It is expected that a new scheme will become available in the latter half of 2017.