Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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741. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the amount it would cost to create feed in tariffs for community and farm based solar, wind and biomass electricity generation. [11184/17]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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The Energy White Paper 'Ireland's Transition to a Low Carbon Energy Future 2015-2030' sets out a high-level framework for Ireland's energy transition to a low carbon economy and sets out a number of actions to support this aim. My Department is currently developing a new Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS) which will be designed to assist us meeting these RES-E targets. The renewable technologies under consideration were identified following a public consultation engagement in 2015, which received over 800 responses, and includes Solar Photovoltaic (PV), Wind and Biomass for electricity generation. The development of the new renewable electricity support scheme also requires detailed economic analysis on the viability and cost effectiveness of supporting these renewable technologies at various scales, including at the community level. This analysis and assessment is currently underway and a second public consultation will be published in Q2 2017 outlining various scheme design options.

Specifically relating to small scale and community led projects, there are commitments made in the Energy White Paper to support community led initiatives and the engagement of citizens in the energy transition. How these community schemes are appropriately structured and funded will be assessed as part of the analysis currently under way to support the development of the new scheme.

Before any new scheme is introduced, it will need to secure Government approval and State aid clearance from the European Commission.