Alternative Sources

Heat

Heat consumes one-third of the energy supply and is dependent on fossil fuels. The alternatives to fossil fuels for direct heating include

• biomass,
• Combined Heat and Power (CHP), and
• geothermal energy.

The target was 12 per cent renewable heat by 2020 in the Renewable Energy Action Plan 2010.

Renewables

Renewables generated 6 per cent of electricity in 2008. Bioheat and other renewable energy supports were put in place under a Bioenergy Action Plan 2007, administered by SEAI.

The Energy (Miscellaneous Provisions Act) 2006  conferred greater discretion on the Commission for Energy Regulation in licensing electricity from renewable, sustainable and alternative forms of energy such as Combined Heat and Power sources.

It implemented Directive 2004/8 on the promotion of cogeneration based on a useful heat demand in the internal energy market. It harmonised the way in which different forms of CHP are calculated with other EU Member States. It enabled the CER to calculate the power-to-heat ratios of  CHP units.

CHP Targets

The Department of Energy developed a plan to meet CHP targets. Grant schemes administered by SEAI were provided for Combined Heat and Power Deployment with a percentage of costs and research on feasibility being met.

This CHP Deployment sought to increase the use of smaller-scale biomass CHP systems across Ireland in accordance with the requirements of Directive 2004/8. The grant schemes for the CHP deployment programme, the Energy Efficiency Retrofit Programme and the Renewable Heat Deployment programmes were withdrawn in 2011 due to the financial crisis.

The installation of CHP was exempted from the requirement for planning permissions for smaller CHP plants granted in the Planning and Development Regulations 2007 and 2008.

Perennials

The Department of Agriculture and Food provided grants for planting perennials (willow and miscanthus) in 2007 under EC Regulation 1698/2005 in support of rural development.

Biofuels

Under the Energy (Biofuel Obligation and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2010, amending the National Oil Reserves Act 2007 and implementing the Renewables Directive 2009/28, oil companies and certain large oil consumers must ensure that a specified amount of the petroleum product that they dispose of, by sale or otherwise, is biofuel. This is fixed by ministerial order,  or in default, 4.166 per cent.

Biofuel obligation certificates are administered by the National Oil Reserves Agency. Certificates are granted to biofuels which have complied with the sustainability criteria for biofuels set out in the Renewables Directive.  If the  biofuel obligation is not met, the party must pay the agency a “buy-out charge” equal to the amount of the unmet obligation multiplied by the price per litre of the biofuel, which is set by ministerial regulation. The objective was to have 10 per cent biofuel market penetration by 2020.

EPA

All integration pollution control licences granted by the EPA must be energy efficient. It has also facilitated the use of biomass to generate heat by its interpretation of waste legislation.

The EPA has, therefore, removed regulatory barriers associated with compliance with waste legislation by deeming the reuse of certain byproducts not to require regulation under the waste legislation.