Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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17. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government whether a national policy framework is being developed to facilitate the lifetime extension of older wind farms and repowering where relevant. [57542/25]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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Ireland is a world leader in onshore wind with over 5 GW of installed capacity. 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 the 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.

Continued operation of existing renewable energy generation, as well as repowering, will be critical to underpin the delivery of Ireland's 80% renewable electricity target, to ensure that emissions reductions are delivered at least cost to households and businesses ,and that security of electricity supply is maintained. The Programme for Government 2025 - Securing Ireland’s Future highlights the role that repowering and the extension of life of existing wind farms can play in achieving our ambitious target of 9 GW of onshore wind by 2030.

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 my colleague 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, my Department is working closely with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage on a range of policy measures, including repowering and life extensions of existing renewable electricity projects, 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.

Repowered projects are currently eligible to compete for support under the Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS) auctions, subject to the eligibility criteria set out in the Terms and Conditions of the scheme. For repowered projects specifically, these include that the annual renewable electricity output of the repowered project will be at least 50% greater than the annual average output of the previous project.

My Department have also recently appointed consultants to help to inform the design, development, and implementation of any necessary future policy reforms as part of a strategy to support the maintenance or repowering of existing onshore renewable energy capacity. The consultancy services are carrying out a bespoke and independent analysis in developing a robust evidence base with the regard to the currently installed onshore wind capacity, connected to both the distribution and transmission system, that may have limited permitted life span or other limits on continued operation.