Irish BioEnergy Policy

1
Irish BioEnergy Policy

• Richard A Browne
• Department of Communications, Energy and Natural
  Resources

2
Key factors in Irish Energy Policy

• Very limited indigenous hydrocarbon resources
• Very limited hydro
• No nuclear
• Peripheral location (poor interconnection)
• Rising oil and gas prices (and volatility)
• Exponential increase in global energy demand
• Security of Supply concerns
• Environmental protection

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Rising Demand

• In the period 1990-2006 Irelands TPER grew by 67
• But natural gas grew by 177
• Fossil fuels accounted for 96 of energy use in
  Ireland in 2006

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TPER by Sector
5
Remember

• Renewables can contribute in three sectors
• Electricity
• Transport Fuels
• Heat

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National Policy Developments

• Energy White Paper March 07
• 33 target for renewable electricity by 2020
• BioEnergy Action Plan
• Programme for Government (July 07)

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BioEnergy Action PlanElectricity

• Set a 33 target for renewable electricity for
  2020
• Expand the REFIT feed-in-tariff support scheme
  to facilitate delivery of co-firing in peat
  stations of 30 by 2015
• Expand the REFIT feed-in-tariff support scheme to
  encourage waste to energy projects by supporting
  hybrid projects.

8
BioEnergy Action PlanTransport

• Set a biofuel target of 5.75 for road transport
  fuel for 2010
• Set a biofuel target of 1 0 for road transport
  fuel for 2020
• Introduce a Biofuel Obligation Scheme by 2009 to
  ensure delivery of the 2010 and 2020 targets
• Support research into second generation biofuels
  including collaborative projects with other
  countries through SEI and the energy RTDI
  programmes under the auspices of the Irish Energy
  Research Council.

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BioEnergy Action PlanHeat

• Set a target of 5 renewable share in the heating
  sector for 2010
• Set a target of 12 renewable share in the
  heating sector for 2020 (taking into account the
  target of 30 co-firing in the Peat Stations by
  2015)
• Expand the Greener Homes Scheme to provide
  support for residential consumers to adopt
  renewable technologies for heating. This is being
  delivered through an additional 20m provided in
  Budget 2007
• Expand the commercial Bioheat Scheme to include a
  combination of renewable technologies e.g. solar
  and wood chip. This is being delivered through an
  additional 4m provided in Budget 2007
• Expand the eligibility of the commercial Bioheat
  Scheme to include the voluntary and community
  sectors.

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EU Policy Developments

• Climate change and energy implementation
  package, published 23rd Jan 08
• -20 GHG reduction compared to 1990
• -20 renewables in energy mix
• -10 biofuels in transport
• Most important for our purposes is RED

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Renewable Energy Directive (Draft)

• Sets binding target of 20 for renewable energy
  for EU as a whole (Ireland 16), and 10 for
  transport fuels.
• Includes indicative trajectories
• Also sets out sustainability criteria for
  Biofuels (following on from the Biofuels
  Directive 2003/30EC)

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Sustainability Criteria (in Draft)

• 35 reduction in GHG
• Biofuels shall not be made from raw material
  obtained from land with recognised high
  biodiversity value
• Biofuels shall not be made from raw material
  obtained from land with high carbon stock,

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Progress to date
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ReHeat

• 26m programme 2006 2010
• Builds on successful 2005 pilot programme
• Grants for commercial wood chip or pellet boilers
• Up to 30 grants depending on project and costs
• 56 applications received to date
• Sectors manufacture, tourism, commercial,
  education, agriculture, leisure
• Programme being expanded to cover community and
  voluntary groups and include solar and heat pump
  technologies

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CHP Deployment Programme

• 11m programme 2006 - 2010
• Aimed at installations up to 1MW
• No limit on size for biomass CHP
• Up to 30 grants depending on project and costs
• 18 applications received to date
• 14 for Capital Investment,
• 4 for Feasibility Study.
• Sectors include Agriculture, Healthcare and
  Toursim.
• Average grant 48k
• Biomass/AD CHP call for proposals launched in
  January 2007 competitive call for proposals

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Renewable electricity REFIT Programme

• New support system.
• Replaces previous AER support
• Biomass category includes anaerobic digestion
• 15 year support for projects
• Guaranteed prices for electricity produced
• Full indexation
• 12per MWh for Biomass/AD CHP Electricity (all
  market risks transferred to retail supplier)
• First past post with planning permission and
  connection
• Unlike AER, REFIT is an open book offer system
  with guaranteed prices

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Greener Homes Scheme

• Grant aid scheme for domestic renewables
  technology (Heat pumps, biomass and solar) with a
  total capital envelope of 59m
• 31,063m spent to end Jan, spread over nearly
  10,000 individual grants
• Nearly a quarter of the spend has gone on biomass
  

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MOTR I II

• 2005 pilot scheme 6m over two years
• 8 projects receiving excise relief
• 2006 scheme In excess of 200m over five years
• 16 projects receiving excise relief
• Target of 2 market penetration by 2008
• Further measures to follow

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Dept of Agriculture Initiatives

• 8m bioenergy establishment scheme 2007 2009
• Energy crop payments Additional 80 per hectare
  on top of current 45 payment. 6m available 2007
  2009. Subject to EU approval
• Biomass harvesting equipment 1.2m in 2007.
  Grants for the purchase of harvesters and
  chippers for forest biomass

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Biofuels Obligation Scheme

• Details to be announced shortly

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Biomass/AD CHP Scheme

• Grant support of up to 30 of the eligible
  capital costs may be awarded to Biomass CHP and
  Anaerobic Digestion CHP projects, with an
  indicative maximum grant that can be allocated to
  a project of 1,500,000.
• Refit price of 12c kw/h
• Details on www.sei.ie

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Sustainable Bioenergy Supply Roadmap

• Objective
• To evaluate the national capacity and import
  requirement to deliver the necessary sustainable
  biomass supply to meet the 2020 Bioenergy White
  Paper targets, identify policy options if there
  is a shortfall, propose programmes to increase
  supply if required and implement such programmes
  as requested.

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The scale of the challenge Biofuels

• For 10 biofuels, a requirement for 750 ktoe of
  biofuels, compared to a biofuel use of 1 ktoe in
  Irish transport in 2005 750 ktoe is equivalent
  to approximately 800,000 tonnes of biodiesel
  which could be produced from 800,000 ha of OSR
  with a crop rotation of 1 year in five, the
  arable area to produce this annual tonnage would
  be 4 million ha which is equal to the total Irish
  land area devoted to agriculture.

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The scale of the challenge Heat

• For 12 renewable heat and 30 co-firing alone, a
  requirement for 970 ktoe of wood energy, or an
  increase of 470 compared to current use. 970
  ktoe is equivalent to 4.5 million tonnes of wood
  chip at 50 moisture content. In 2006 the
  estimated total removal of wood from the Irish
  forest estate (for sawlog, panel board
  manufacture, bioenergy, etc.) was an estimated
  2.4 million tonnes.