Written answers

Tuesday, 13 February 2018

Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment

Energy Efficiency

Photo of Martin KennyMartin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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520. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the cost of the dairy sector pilot project run by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland in collaboration with Teagasc conducted in 2017; the number of persons in receipt of payments from the scheme; his plans to sustain and expand the scheme; and the funding allocated for same in 2018. [6998/18]

Photo of Denis NaughtenDenis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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SEAI developed the Dairy Sector pilot scheme in partnership with Teagasc and rolled it out during 2017 as a new pilot measure for the SME sector.  The scheme targeted the high electricity use associated with milking parlours – funding high efficiency pumps and variable speed drives (VSDs) that can dramatically reduce electricity consumption on dairy farms.  The VSD and vacuum pumps can reduce process electricity consumption by 60% which can result in savings of over 10% on total farm energy costs.  Payments amounting to €188,000 of grant support were made in 2017 to 47 successful grantees by SEAI from funding provided by my Department.

Funding for SME programmes is being increased by my Department by €2.4m for 2018 bringing the total allocation to €3.4m. The purpose of this funding will be to support initiatives spanning the SME sector that have good learning or demonstrator effect or where good efficiency and emissions reductions potential exists.  How it will be allocated will be determined over the coming weeks in consultation with SEAI, having regard to learnings from the 2017 pilot projects, recent consultations and other relevant inputs.  At this point it is not possible to say whether, or to what extent, initiatives in the agricultural sector would be supported from this allocation.  Decisions on this will also need to have regard to supports available from the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine.

There are a range of other supports for energy efficient and emissions reductions available through the SEAI which may be of interest to the agricultural sector.  These include energy management training for SMEs; free information and best practice guides on energy management and the EXEED (excellence in energy efficiency and design) scheme.  The SEAI also produces the “Triple E” Register of products approved as being energy efficient.  Coupled with the Accelerated Capital Allowance (ACA) scheme this allows businesses to identify and buy the most energy efficient equipment and write down the cost of such equipment in the year of purchase rather than over 8 years.  More detail of these supports can be found on the SAI website at www.seai.ie

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