Written answers

Wednesday, 8 February 2017

Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources

Renewable Energy Incentives

Photo of Eamon RyanEamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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254. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if, in addition to advertising scholarships for students undertaking taught MSc degrees commencing in the academic year 2017-2018 on topics of direct relevance to the development of Ireland’s petroleum resources, he will consider offering similar scholarships in the field of renewable energy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6247/17]

Photo of Denis NaughtenDenis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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The Energy White Paper published in December 2015, sets out a vision and framework to guide Irish energy policy and the actions that Government intends to take in the energy sector from now up to 2030, aimed at transforming Ireland's fossil-fuel based energy sector into a clean, low carbon system by 2050. Successive Governments have introduced a range of policy measures and schemes to incentivise the use of renewable energy and deliver energy efficiency.

There is already a vibrant energy research and development environment in Ireland. Government continues to encourage innovation and significant funds are already invested in energy research, development, demonstration and deployment across a range of third level institutions, research institutions such as the Beaufort Centre in Cork, agencies including Science Foundation Ireland, the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, Enterprise Ireland and the Environmental Protection Agency. In addition, EU research programmes such as Horizon 2020, provide opportunities for Irish public bodies and private companies to maximise funding opportunities.

Energy research plays an integral part in Ireland’s energy policy and support to renewable energy research is  a vast multiple of the  €35,000 p.a. approx. provided to support geoscience scholarships. As regards my Department, I recently doubled the funds available to the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) for its Energy Research, Development and Demonstration (RD&D) fund in 2017 to €2 million. This fund is open to Irish researchers in industry and academia to support sustainable energy research into new market solutions which overcome various barriers in the move to a secure, clean energy future, and provides for the possibility of support to postgraduate studies. SEAI, with my Department, is currently reviewing RD&D funding to see how it could better align with the timelines of academic research, and the potential for postgraduate studies. Priority areas include energy efficiency, citizen engagement and energy storage with the programme open to a wide range of proposal types - including technology RD&D, field research, and feasibility studies. Since 2002, my Department has funded SEAI to provide €26 million through its Energy RD&D programme and details of these projects are available on the SEAI website (www.seai.ie). Furthermore, in conjunction with the Economic and Social Research Institute, SEAI funds a Research Fellowship which focuses on energy efficiency incentivisation activities.  

Exchequer funding is also supporting ocean energy research with a total cumulative funding of €26.3 million provided under my Department’s multi-annual ocean energy development budget for the period 2013 to 2016 and administered by SEAI. 

Noting the availability and scale of Government and EU funding for energy research, while I have no plans to introduce scholarships in the field of renewable energy, I will continue to keep the matter under review.

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