Brian Leddin (Limerick City, Green Party)
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116. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment his overall ambition for community energy here; the steps that he will take to ensure that barriers to progress in the delivery and implementation of community-led renewable energy projects are identified, evaluated and addressed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28371/22]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The Climate Action Plan 2021 outlines indicative renewable energy targets of up to 8GW of onshore wind and 1.5-2.5GW of solar by 2030. Of this, 500MW is targeted to come from Community-based projects.

Community supports under the Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS) will be key components of delivering on this ambition. The RESS is an auction-based support scheme which invites grid-scale renewable electricity generation projects to compete to receive a guaranteed price for the electricity they generate. The scheme includes a dedicated Community Category developed specifically to allow communities and citizens to participate in and benefit from RESS. In the first RESS auction, 7 Community projects were successful, two of which were 100% community owned, the remainder being at least 51% community owned. For RESS-2 onwards all community projects must be 100% community owned. There were 10 Community projects identified as provisional winners in the recent RESS-2 auction.  

Furthermore, the Community Enabling Framework includes a package of enabling supports including technical, financial and legal services which has been rolled out to assist communities in navigating the challenging terrain of electricity generation. The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) is leading in implementing and facilitating these components of the framework. In 2022, €2 million in capital funding has been allocated to support the development of Community projects, which allowed the SEAI to roll out a trusted advisory service and enabling grants on 21st April 2022. These are vital supports to enable the growth of the nascent community renewable electricity generation sector.  

The Climate Action Plan also commits to the development of a support scheme for small-scale generation (>50kW) to support the deployment of rooftop and ground-mounted solar PV in cohorts that are not as suited to other support measures. This will enable farmers, auto-generators and communities to maximise their participation in the energy transition. The design of the scheme will be progressed in 2022 and it is expected to become available in 2023.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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I recently announced the provisional results of the second RESS auction (RESS 2) which is expected to deliver approximately 414 MW of onshore wind and 1,534 MW of solar energy, a potential increase of nearly 20% in Ireland’s renewable energy generation.

According to the International Energy Agency there has been significant inflation of input costs for wind and solar electricity generation projects over the last 18 months. It is estimated that the overall investment costs of new utility-scale PV and onshore wind plants are from 15% to 25% higher in 2022.

While bid prices were higher than the first auction, owing mainly to international inflationary pressures in input costs, renewable energy delivered under the scheme will pay back to consumers when wholesale electricity prices are high through the Public Service Obligation Levy.  RESS 2 bid prices are also fixed over the lifetime of the support with no increases from indexing to inflation.  

Renewable energy delivered under the RESS  2 auction will shield consumers from high prices, reduce our dependency on imported fossil fuels in the context of the phasing out of Russian energy imports across the EU and contribute to communities across the country. More broadly, renewable energy generation such as wind and solar lowers wholesale electricity prices during periods when they are generating power.

Community-led projects can have higher costs than developer led projects due to economies of scale, and reliance on external services to deliver projects. The Community Enabling Framework for community-led projects includes a package of supports including technical, financial and legal services to assist communities in navigating the challenging terrain of electricity generation.

The electricity and gas retail markets in Ireland operate within a European Union regulatory regime wherein electricity and gas markets are commercial, liberalised, and competitive. State owned enterprises and private sector companies operate within this competitive framework to deliver the overall lowest cost to consumers over the lifetime of the investment.  

Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party)
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120. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment his views regarding the setting-up of a standalone direct grant scheme for schools to install solar photovoltaic to benefit from the imminent planning exemptions for installation of roof-top solar photovoltaic; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28448/22]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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I understand that the Department of Housing, Local Government & Heritage (DHLGH) is currently in the process of making revisions to the Planning Regulations to support greater installation of solar panels, which includes the undertaking of a Strategic Environmental Assessment of the revisions to the exemptions for solar installations. This is due to go to public consultation shortly with a view to approval by the Oireachtas later this year. To facilitate switching to renewable energy sources I bought forward the final design of the Micro-Generation Support Scheme (MSS) which was approved by Government in December 2021.

The Micro-generation Support Scheme (MSS) is targeting support for 380MW of installed micro-generation capacity, to contribute to the target of up to 2.5GW of solar renewables under the Climate Action Plan. Micro-generation has an important role to play as it creates opportunities for domestic, school, farming and small commercial customers to take the first steps towards investment in renewable technologies, by generating and consuming their own electricity, which can play a role in shaping electricity demand and decarbonising homes and businesses.

The MSS will provide capital grants for non-domestic applicants, such as schools, for solar PV installations up to 6.0kW primarily for self-consumption, with grant levels up to a maximum of €2,400 available. This will be administered by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) and will become available to the non-domestic sector for installations up to 6.0kW in July this year.

In addition, on 15 February this year I signed the Regulations that create an obligation on suppliers to offer the Clean Export Guarantee (CEG) tariff to new and existing micro-and small-scale generators so that they will receive payment for excess renewable electricity that they may export to the grid, reflective of the market value.

In Quarter 3 of this year when the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) will consult on an implementation plan for the Clean Export Premium (CEP) tariff, a guaranteed export tariff support for new installations which is fixed for 15 years for non-domestic applicants for installations greater than 6.0kW up to 50kW in size.