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AD REFIT announced to 2025 |
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Monday, 14 September 2009 |
Energy Minister Eamon Ryan announced on the 9th September 09 detail of support prices for new categories of renewable energy generated in Ireland. The Renewable Energy Feed in Tariff (REFIT) is a Government scheme designed to stimulate the growth of the renewable energy industry in Ireland, and prices are payable on energy produced from wind, ocean and biomass sources.
The current support price is €66 per megawatt of electricity produced
and applies to large wind based projects. Subject to State aid
approval, this announcement marks the beginning of payment of tariffs
for new categories of renewable energy. In order to guarantee financial
return for investors, these prices will not subject to indexation (CPI)
and will be payable for a period of fifteen years.
Biomass: AD and high efficiency CHP. A price of €120 per megawatt of energy produced.
Offshore wind: A price of €140 per megawatt of energy produced.
Ocean Energy: (Wave and tidal) A price of €220 per megawatt of energy produced.
In order to be eligible for REFIT, developers will require planning
permission, signed grid connection offer and an offer of a power
purchase agreement from a registered supply company. The next grouping
of renewable electricity grid connection offers, referred to as the
Gate 3 process, is currently underway and the new tariffs will
facilitate some of the developers involved in this process to progress
their projects through the financial planning stages. "Governments
worldwide are moving in a low carbon direction," said Minister Ryan.
"The economies of the future will be based on alternative energy
sources, rather than a carbon based supply. Clean energy will help
provide the answer to our economic and energy difficulties. Developing
a viable renewable industry will not only stimulate economic growth and
reduce our overall level of carbon emissions, but will help us reduce
our dependence on imported oil and gas.
This is a relatively new sector, and project developers must be
confident of a return on their investments. For this reason, we've
fixed support prices up to 2025, as an incentive and assistance for new
projects.
It's a clear demonstration of the Government's commitment in this area."
The amount of renewable electricity generated in Ireland has increased
very significantly in recent years from just over 4% in 2003 to over
12% in 2008.
The Renewable Energy Feed in Tariff scheme will be similar to the
existing tariff bands in that developers will require planning
permission, signed grid connection offer and an offer of a power
purchase agreement from a registered supply company.
New tariffs are subject to State aid considerations, will not be
indexed against Consumer Price Indexes and will be payable for a period
of fifteen years. They are considerably high so as to stimulate
investment and support the high start-up costs in the sector.
Further information under "Additional Categories" at http://www.dcenr.gov.ie/Energy/Sustainable+and+Renewable+Energy+Division/
 AdditionalREFITcetegories 252.11 Kb
Source: ENDS
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