Connemara companies and community groups can now become small scale electricity producers.
Speaking at the announcement Green Party Senator and MEP Candidate Pauline O’Reilly said “this is excellent news. Farms, companies, and community groups can take control of electricity production by becoming small scale electricity producers with the launch of the second phase of the Small-Scale Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (SRESS).
She continued “SRESS will provide an easier route to market for community projects, while also giving farmers and small businesses opportunities to benefit from the energy transition (from fossil fuels to renewables).
“Phase 2 of SRESS will provide support to electricity export projects through a range of fixed tariffs – for renewable energy communities, Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs), and farmers – from 50kW up to 6MW”.
She went on to say “SRESS tariffs have been set across six categories – three community rates and three SME rates, covering both solar and wind.
“The largest supported category – grid-scale community solar projects – will receive a guaranteed tariff that’s 20% higher than the average community price in the most recent Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS) auction for community projects in 2022.
She concluded, “this is part of a drive to further increase solar PV generation – to give householders, communities, schools and farmers more opportunities to either sell electricity to the grid, or to power their farms and communities through self-owned generation sources”.
RESS (Renewable Electricity Support Scheme):
The RESS (Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS) is one of the major Government policies to help deliver on Ireland’s ambitious climate and energy targets. RESS is an auction-based support scheme which invites grid-scale renewable electricity generation projects to compete to receive a guaranteed price for the electricity they generate under a two-way floating feed in premium.
TAMS (Targeted Agriculture Modernisation Scheme) 3:
The TAMS 3 SCIS (Solar Capital Investment Scheme) is for renewable self-consumers, from 1kW to 62kW. The TAMS 3 scheme, in general, provides grants to farmers to build/install and/or improve a specified range of farm buildings and equipment on their holding. The TAMS Solar Capital Investment Scheme encourages the purchase of solar PV investments for contribution towards farms own electricity self-consumption, thereby reducing dependence on fossil energy. The self-consumption on farm holdings of solar PV generated electricity is further enhanced by the provision of grant aid under the scheme for the installation solar PV batteries for the storage of this electricity for later use, and thereby further offsetting the importation of electricity from the grid.