Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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286. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if there is a register or other collection of data used by his Department to identify excess, waste or surplus heat in industry or other sectors; if this data is mapped by his Department or a body under its aegis; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13206/18]

Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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287. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the action he is taking to promote district heating here; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13214/18]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 286 and 287 together.

In 2015, AECOM completed a study commissioned by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) to fulfil Ireland’s requirements under Article 14 of the Energy Efficiency Directive (2012/27/EU) and SEAI’s responsibility under 23(1) of the European Union (Energy Efficiency) Regulations 2014 (S.I. No. 426 of 2014). As part of this study a map of Ireland’s heat demand was developed.

In addition to presenting a spatial representation of Ireland's heat demand data, the map includes industrial waste heat availability for EU Emissions Trading System sites, the location of industrial sites, key energy supply technologies including power stations and water network lengths, gas network lengths and road lengths used for the calculation of linear heat density. The map is available on the SEAI website at the following address: .

A large portion of heat demand in Ireland is generally low density in nature and not suitable for district heating.  However, potential exists for certain scale projects and further analysis could potentially identify more localised opportunities.

One of the commitments in the Energy White Paper (Ireland's Transition to a Low Carbon Energy Future) is to “develop a policy framework to encourage the development of district heating”.  A working group, chaired by my Department, has been established in order to develop this framework. 

The Support Scheme for Renewable Heat (SSRH), which was approved by Government in December 2017, is designed to support the adoption of renewable heating systems by non-domestic heat users at sites not covered by the emissions trading system.  This will include district heating systems in addition to commercial, industrial, agricultural and other non-domestic heat users.