Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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43. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the funding that was available to renewable energy communities in 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and to date in 2025; and the amount drawn down in each of the years, in tabular form. [28180/25]

Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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45. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the estimated cost to increase the funding available for renewable energy committees over a five-year period, rising by 50% per annum, broken down by years 1 to 5. [28182/25]

Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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46. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the estimated cost to increase the funding available for renewable energy committees over a five-year period, rising by 25% per annum, broken down by years 1 to 5. [28183/25]

Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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47. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the estimated cost to increase the funding available for renewable energy committees over a five-year period, rising by 33% per annum, broken down by years 1 to 5. [28184/25]

Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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67. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment to estimate the cost to increase the funding available for renewable energy communities over a 5-year period, rising by 50%, 33% and 25% per annum, by years one to five. [28244/25]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 43, 45, 46, 47 and 67 together.

The Renewable Energy Support Scheme (RESS) Community Enabling Framework was launched in 2022. It provided a range of supports, including grant funding of potentially up to €180,000, offered from SEAI to community renewable energy projects, to help them participate in the RESS. To date, two community projects (both under RESS 1 in 2022), including one solar and one wind, have received €40,000 each in grant funding. Similar supports will be available under the Small Scale Renewable Support scheme, which opened for applications in January 2025.

The funding allocated for community energy is for a range of supports, aside from grants. 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 various topics, including stakeholder engagement, business planning and the Irish electricity market.

SEAI also provides free access to 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 consultancy support also includes 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.

SEAI was allocated €0.25m in 2020 to commence the start-up activities for the various supports envisaged under the Enabling Framework.

SEAI was then allocated €3 million in 2021 for the various supports envisaged under the Enabling Framework with an additional €2 million in 2022, €1.2 million in 2023, €1.543 million in 2024 and €1 million in 2025.

The table below provides the cost to increase the funding available for renewable energy communities over a 5-year period, rising by 50%, 33% and 25% per annum, by years one to five.

Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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44. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the estimated cost for a renewable energy community to connect to the grid; the number of renewable energy communities that have been successful in RESS or SRESS that have energised; and the number that have failed to energise and time out of their RESS contract or SRESS before energising, in tabular form. [28181/25]

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.

Seven community projects were successful in the Renewable Electricity Support Scheme 1 (RESS 1) auction, (five solar and two wind projects). Of these seven projects, three have now energised. These community projects have been enabled by the RESS scheme and have now entered into private arrangements for selling their renewable energy.

Ten community projects were successful in the RESS 2 auction. Of these, eight solar projects signed implementation agreements to deliver under the RESS 2 terms and conditions and two wind projects did not take up the RESS 2 offer. Some RESS 1 and RESS 2 projects may also develop through alternative routes to market, including SRESS.

Through my Department’s continued engagement with RECs, there is evidence of significant challenges that REC projects may face with the competitive, auction based nature of RESS, along with grid and other barriers to project delivery. Therefore, support for communities for the development of renewable projects has now transitioned to the non-competitive SRESS.

The SRESS export phase is designed for community, SME and farm projects above 50kW to 6MW, offering a simpler route to market, with fixed tariffs for solar and wind, aligning more closely to their experience and the capacity of these sectors. All export projects up to 1MW can also apply to SRESS, and need not be communities, SMEs or farmers.

The scheme opened for applications on 27 January. The SRESS application form together with the terms and conditions and a non-technical summary, are available on the Department’s website at .

Responsibility for oversight of the development of the electricity grid and related costs is a matter for the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU).

From engagement with communities representatives and sectoral stakeholders my Department is aware that grid costs can be substantial, in some cases running into millions of euro, and can vary enormously depending on the project location and network reinforcement needs.

To assist communities, under the Community Enabling Framework SEAI has also recently undertaken eleven grid studies on a county basis to support communities in identifying sites within their locality that are most likely to have an economically viable grid connection.

In addition, the ESB Networks’ Generation Minimum Cost Calculator and Grid Availability Capacity heatmap help communities estimate connection costs and identify viable sites. Both tools are available on the ESB Networks website www.esbnetworks.ie/services/tools-maps.

Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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48. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the estimated number of WTE and HTE staff, by grade, working in the SEAI; and the estimated cost of increasing staffing by 50% at each grade. [28187/25]