Irish Wind Energy Association Conference

This conference is timely, coming as it does, shortly after the publication of the White Paper, “Delivering A Sustainable Energy Future for Ireland”.

The White Paper sets out a high level strategy for economic sustainability that includes the interests of customers and environmental protection.

This Government is committed to ensuring that we have a security of supply; sustainability; and competitiveness in the energy sector.

Indigenous renewable energy resources are capable of contributing to each of these goals in the electricity, heat and transport markets. I believe wind energy will play a pivotal role in reaching our 33% target.

There are over 200 separate actions set out in the White Paper, designed to bring fundamental change to the way we produce and use energy. We have set challenging targets for the renewable energy sector including:

• 33% of electricity consumption from renewable energy sources by 2020;
• a minimum target of 5% market penetration of renewables in the heat market by 2010
• this target increasing to 12% by 2020, and
• a 5.75% biofuels market penetration by 2010

I believe that the 33% target is challenging but realistic. Our aim is to more than double the renewable energies contribution from about 6% to 15%. We then propose to more than double that contribution again to 33% over the following ten years.

A few short years ago this would have been seen by some as a questionable interference in a recently liberalised market. But times have certainly changed.

As a nation we have to face the challenges of the ever increasing oil and energy prices and availability as well as our need to significantly reduce our carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions.

Another important issue is that our national economy has an import dependence of around 90% to meet its energy needs. That is not sustainable.
The White Paper clearly lays out how we tackle those issues in a practical but robust way.

There is absolutely no doubt that harnessing all our forms of indigenous energy resources, and renewable energy resources in particular, is central to doing that.

There has been great progress in this industry, thanks to the support programmes put in place by this Government and the accelerated liberalisation programme for green electricity.

As a result we now have over 1000 megawatts of renewable capacity connected to the national grid of which wind power is the dominant technology at 744 megawatts. The vast majority of this has been delivered over the last 3 years.

We also have an additional 620 megawatts awaiting clearance for State aid to proceed under the REFIT programme, with a further 1300 megawatts in the regulator’s “Gate 2” procedure.

CER has indicated that this additional “gate 2” capacity can also be delivered by 2010 and we also expect to deliver 2,000 megawatts in the next three years. This, I believe, is substantial progress by any objective assessment or comparison.

This level of growth in the wind sector is consistent with the White Paper and we acknowledge that wind-energy will remain pivotal in delivering the 33% target.

In preparing for the White Paper, I deliberately put in place a process designed to look at our future energy mix and policies and to get people thinking about what is practically required to achieve this.
I ensured that both the stakeholder involvement and consultation was an integral feature of the process.

As part of that background work, I moved support for wind-energy projects away from competitive tendering to the fixed-feed in tariff programme “REFIT”.

This change has been received positively because it brings greater certainty to developers and investors.

The REFIT programme does not have a closing date and there is a discretion to increase the capacity to be supported, which I believe will be of significant importance as “Gate 2” connection offers emerge.

My colleagues and I in this Government are preparing for a General Election in the coming months. And I believe that we can hold our heads high when it comes to delivering on renewable energy issues.

Ireland now has over 60 wind-farms operational and 55 of them have connection offers ready under REFIT.
And there a further 100 wind-farms in the process of receiving connection offers.

We believe that if we are to progress our commitment in this exciting and vitally important energy sector, we must work with all the stakeholders.

You, as key stakeholders, must choose partners that have a track record in this area and a commitment to the future.

I ask that you carefully consider, over the coming weeks, who you want regulating, promoting, co-operating and working with you at Government level. And that you choose a Government with a proven track record in this sector.

Thank you.

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