Peter Fitzpatrick (Louth, Fine Gael)
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967. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the amount that is paid per kilowatt per hour for solar power; if there is a tariff; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45825/17]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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Current financial supports for renewable electricity projects in Ireland are provided via the Renewable Electricity Feed-In-Tariff (REFIT) schemes, which support renewable electricity generated and exported into the national grid. Renewable technologies supported under the REFIT schemes include Onshore Wind, Hydro, Biomass Landfill Gas, Biomass Combustion, Biomass CHP and Anaerobic Digestion CHP. At present, Solar Photovoltaic (Solar PV), for electricity generation, is not supported under any of these REFIT schemes and at present there is no tariff for Solar PV generation. This is largely down to the historic higher costs associated with Solar PV in comparison to other renewable electricity technologies. The Government recognises that Solar Photovoltaic (Solar PV) has the potential to contribute to meeting Ireland’s renewable energy and climate change objectives and could also provide a community dividend, thereby enhancing citizen participation in Ireland's energy future.  My Department is, therefore, developing a new Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS) which will be designed to assist Ireland in meeting its renewable energy contributions out to 2030.

The design of this new scheme included an extensive economic appraisal. This appraisal compared the cost of supporting Solar PV (both rooftop and ground mounted), Onshore and Offshore Wind and a range of other commercial renewable technologies, at various scales, to ensure that the new scheme delivers value for money for energy users whilst also delivering on the energy pillars of sustainability and security of supply. The assessment also included analysis of the optimum financial support mechanisms for renewable technologies, in line with the 2014 EU State Aid Guidelines.

A public consultation on the design principles of the proposed new RESS was launched on 4 September and submissions are invited from the public. All submissions will be considered and following on from this final consultation, a design proposal will be brought to Government for approval. Full details of the consultation are available on my Department’s website at: www.dccae.gov.ie.

Finally, while I have no statutory function in the matter, I am aware that since February 2009 Electric Ireland had offered a feed-in tariff on a commercial basis to domestic micro generators, although they subsequently 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 and published 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  Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU).