Paul Lawless (Mayo, Aontú)
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207. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the amount that has been paid out to companies engaged by the SEAI to conduct feasibility studies for enabling grant funds to be allocated to community groups trying to get renewable energy generation projects off the ground in each year since the enabling grant was introduced. [9095/25]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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The Programme for Government commits to promoting the Small-Scale Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (SRESS) to simplify market access for community owned solar and wind projects and to supporting communities to secure grid access for local renewable projects.

The Renewable Energy Support Scheme (RESS) Community Enabling Framework was launched in 2022. It provides a range of supports, including grant funding, offered from SEAI to community renewable energy projects, to help them participate in the RESS.

Through the Community Enabling Framework, a set of technical and financial supports for community projects are currently available to communities under RESS. Similar supports will be available under the recently opened Small-Scale Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (SRESS).

In March 2022, SEAI appointed a framework of expert consultants to support the implementation and continual development of the Community Enabling Framework. This support includes the provision of a suite of information resources and guidance documents which are the first reference point for any community group, covering stakeholder engagement, business planning and the Irish electricity market.

SEAI also provide trusted advisors who are specialist technical experts to guide communities throughout the stages of project development from forming a community group, through to site identification, feasibility studies, designing a project and making grid and planning applications.

The technical consultancy support to communities includes the preparation of free feasibility reports for their projects which identify key risks and opportunities for project development which in turn allows communities to make informed decisions on project progression.

The consultancy support also provides for county level grid analysis reports and guidance to support communities to identify areas for renewable energy projects that are most likely to have economically viable grid connections, which is critical to enabling a sustainable community energy sector.

Depending on the location of a project, overall investment costs for communities can run into millions of euro. It is vital that supports such as free grid studies and project feasibility studies are available to ensure that communities are equipped to make sound investment decisions.

The overall consultancy costs to SEAI of supports under this framework, covering the feasibility reports along with grid, planning, financial and business planning guidance was €240,500 in 2022, €331,000 in 2023, and €121,000 in 2024.