Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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635. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the extent to which it is expected to use waste to energy in electricity generation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37866/18]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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Latest data from the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI)  indicate that waste to energy accounted for 1% of gross final electricity consumption in Ireland in 2017, with a  total of 78 MW installed generation capacity from the municipal waste to energy plants in Co. Meath (17 MW) and the Dublin Waste to Energy facility (61 MW). In addition, I understand that there are currently plans for a further waste to energy plant to be developed in Ringaskiddy, Co. Cork.

Increasing renewable technology diversity is one of several policy objectives of my Department. In July, Government approved the high level design of the new Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS) and this Scheme will now proceed through the EU State Aid approval process. It is expected that the first renewable electricity auction will take place under RESS in 2019.  

The design of the new scheme has included an extensive independent economic appraisal. This appraisal compared the cost of supporting a broad range of commercial renewable technologies, including waste to energy. In order to minimise the costs of the scheme to consumers, all renewable technologies will be subject to a viability gap look back analysis prior to each auction to identify which RES-E technologies can participate in each auction round.

Regarding future projections for waste to energy in the generation mix, EirGrid's recent Tomorrow's Energy Scenarios 2017 publication estimates installed capacity for waste to energy generation to range from 80 to 100 MW by 2030, based on the assumption that waste to energy plants source half of their waste from renewable sources.