Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity)
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513. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the projected cost to rapidly transition Ireland to 100% wind, solar, wave and hydro energy by 2030. [47201/19]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The Climate Action Plan sets out the comprehensive actions that will ensure we meet our 2030 climate commitments putting us on a trajectory to be net zero by 2050. A central commitment under the Plan is Ireland’s ambitious target of 70% of electricity demand by 2030 along with a suite of actions to deliver this at least cost. The new Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS) is critical to delivering on the 70% RES-E target and is being designed to achieve its targets within a competitive framework which will put downward pressure on the costs to end consumers. The RESS auctions will ultimately determine the precise mix and cost of renewable projects and technology diversity, including solar and offshore wind, that will occur naturally as the scheme matures.

Private sector funding through corporate contracting will also be essential for meeting higher levels of ambition to increase renewable energy supply. The Climate Plan commits to a 15% target for the renewable industry to develop projects through subsidy free corporate power purchase agreements by 2030.

Long term decarbonisation of the electricity sector will require significant investment in Ireland’s potential in offshore renewables including harnessing the potential to export power generated offshore to other EU Member States. Further reinforcement of the grid (including greater interconnection to allow electricity to flow between Ireland and other countries), and putting systems in place to manage intermittent sources of power through developing a range of storage technologies will be essential.

While significant investment will be required to meet long term targets in decarbonisation of electricity, rapidly falling costs of renewable energy technologies will reduce the costs to energy consumers. It is intended that the Department will keep under review the costs of electricity from renewable energy sources and that RESS auctions will be informed by up-to-date Levelised Cost of Energy (LCOE) analysis.