Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South West, Fianna Fail)
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114. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment to outline any analysis carried out by his Department, consultancy or State body, relating to repowering windfarms in Ireland that will reach their end of life in 2030 and associated annual Exchequer costs; to outline any State funding both current and capital allocated to date in 2024; and the funding committed over the remainder of this decade to repowering such windfarms. [40927/24]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The Renewable Energy Directive requires Member States to introduce accelerated and simplified permitting procedures for the repowering of renewable energy projects. Planning matters fall under the remit of the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage and the decision to repower individual projects is a matter for developers.

Through the Accelerating Renewable Electricity Taskforce, officials in my department are working closely with Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage on a range of policy measures to ensure that there is a supportive policy framework in place that facilitates the accelerated deployment of onshore wind and solar farm developments and supports a streamlined process for repowering of renewable electricity generation projects.

Ireland is a world leader in onshore wind and the continued operation of Ireland's fleet of onshore wind farms is critical to ensuring a secure and affordable energy supply to 2030 and beyond.

Repowering of existing wind farms has potential to deliver an increase in generation capacity, usually by replacing older, less efficient turbines with newer models with higher capacities, with limited additional environmental impact while maintaining electricity system security of supply.

Continued operation of existing renewable energy through permitting and other means as well as repowering will be critical to underpin the delivery of Ireland's 80% by 2030 renewable electricity target, that emissions reductions are delivered at least cost to households and businesses and security of electricity supply is maintained.

While the repowering of windfarms in Ireland is an important future policy consideration, no specific analysis has been carried out or funding provided by my Department to date.

Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South West, Fianna Fail)
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115. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the estimated cost of holding an annual renewable electricity support scheme auction. [40928/24]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS) is Ireland’s flagship support scheme for grid-scale renewable electricity generators and a key measure in supporting Ireland's ambitious renewable electricity targets under the Climate Action Plan. The RESS is comprised of a series of regular competitive auctions. The results of the most recent and very successful fourth RESS auction were published on 27 September 2024.

The RESS auction is designed and developed in-house by my Department and the auction is operated by EirGrid under auction operator license from the CRU at no cost to the Department. The administration and enduring contract management of the scheme is carried out internally by officials in my Department.

As part of the design and administration of the scheme, my Department procures consultancy support for legal and economic advice to aid in the development of the terms and conditions of each RESS auction and the associated documentation, as well as to assist with the handling of any queries or challenges relating to same.

For 2023 and year to date 2024, during which time two RESS auctions have been developed, the cost of legal consultancy associated with the development and operation of the schemes was €100,000. The cost of economic advice in the same period was just over €74,000.

Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South West, Fianna Fail)
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116. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment to outline current policy towards community-led renewable energy projects as well as local renewable energy trusts. [40950/24]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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Through the first two Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS) auctions, my Department provided pathways and supports for Renewable Energy Communities (RECs) to participate in renewable energy projects through the application of a community projects category. Community renewable energy trusts is a term generally used in the UK to refer to entities similar to RECs.

My Department’s continued engagement with RECs, has identified evidence of significant challenges that they projects may face with the auction based nature of RESS, along with other barriers to project delivery. Therefore, support for communities for the development of renewable projects will now transition to the Small-Scale Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (SRESS).

In May I announced the tariffs for the export tariff phase of SRESS, which will support small-scale and community renewable projects. In the largest SRESS category, communities will receive a guaranteed tariff 20% higher than the average community price in the most recent RESS auction for community projects in 2022.

A set of technical and financial supports for community projects are currently available to communities through the Community Enabling Framework under the RESS. Similar supports will be available under the SRESS.

In addition, in 2023 and 2024 SEAI also undertook seven county level grid studies to support communities in identifying sites that are most likely to have an economically viable grid connection.

In September, the Commission for Regulation of Utilities published the new Electricity Connection Policy – Generation and System Services policy. The new policy provides greater opportunities for connection to the electricity network for community renewable energy projects through provisions such as the reduction in the first stage grid payment fees; the removal of upper and lower capacity limits; the size of projects not required to pay a capacity bond increasing from 5MW to 6MW; and the removal of caps on the number of projects per processing batch.