Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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150. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the amount of State investment planned for investment in offshore wind energy projects; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39778/20]

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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151. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment his plans for State owned offshore wind farms; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39779/20]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 150 and 151 together.

The electricity generation market in Ireland, the Integrated Single Electricity Market (I-SEM), is liberalised and open to both state-owned and private enterprises to compete in line with the requirements of the EU internal energy market. As such, while state-owned bodies may own and operate offshore wind developments, these bodies do so on a commercial basis, and in order to avoid undermining the competitive principles of the I-SEM, the State itself does not directly own or operate, or plan to own or operate, any such generation assets. This is in accordance with the principles of the internal energy market to ensure a competitive, customer-centred electricity market with market-based supply prices.

In order to make progress towards the Programme for Government commitment of 5GW of installed offshore wind capacity by 2030, my Department is developing the terms and conditions of the Offshore Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (Offshore RESS). The Offshore RESS will be the means for supporting offshore wind developments via a competitive auction based framework. This competitive element is required under the State Aid clearance for the scheme in order to achieve our renewable energy ambitions at the lowest cost to consumers.

Similar to RESS-1, which my Department ran for onshore technologies earlier this year, the Offshore RESS will function by inviting eligible offshore wind projects to bid for capacity and, if successful at auction, receive a guaranteed 'strike price' for the electricity they generate.

As with RESS-1, a number of cost control measures will be included in the Offshore RESS, details of which will be included in the draft terms and conditions of the scheme, which are planned to be made available early next year for public consultation. The first Offshore RESS auction process will take place before the end of next year.

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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152. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the current level of energy produced from offshore windfarms; the projected level of energy that will be produced from offshore windfarms in each year from 2020 to 2030; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39780/20]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The information requested by the Deputy is available in the 2019 National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP) which is available on the Gov.ie website under “Ireland’s National Energy and Climate Plan 2021-2030”.It can be located in table 7 on page 42 of the document.

In its NECP, Ireland signalled around 3,500MW of offshore wind installed capacity by 2030. The figures set out in the table below refer to the corresponding energy generated by this installed capacity trajectory under the With Additional Measures (WAM) scenario, which reflects the policy position at the end of 2019 when the plan was completed.

Renewable Electricity-Generation by Offshore Wind (ktoe) WAM

Under the Programme for Government, Ireland is committed to achieving a 7% annual average reduction in greenhouse gas emissions between 2021 and 2030 and has increased the ambition for offshore wind to 5,000MW of installed capacity by 2030. My Department is currently developing the policies and measures required to meet this higher level of ambition.