James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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225. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the status of the renewable heat incentive, RHI, grant and other relevant measures to support the sector; if purchases of a biomass boiler from January 2017 onwards will be included in the RHI grant; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8838/17]

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. During 2016, my Department undertook a detailed economic assessment on the design and cost of the RHI for the industrial/commercial sector.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.

I announced the final public consultation on the design and implementation of the new RHI scheme on 26 January, 2017 which is available onwww.dccae.gov.ie.I encourage all interested parties to submit a response to this consultation. The information provided will help inform the final design of the new scheme. The current consultation will close on 3 March, 2017.

Before any RHI scheme 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 at the end of 2017.