Over 16% of Ireland’s total final consumption of energy has to come from renewable energy by 2020. Teagasc renewable energy specialist Barry Caslin, who was speaking at Energy in Agriculture 2016, said: “At the moment approximately 8.6% of our energy comes from renewables so we are just over halfway.”

He explained that those targets go back to 1990 so essentially in 25 years we are only at the halfway mark. “The question is will we go the other half in the space of four years because these targets have to be met by 2020,” said Caslin.

Most analysis says no we are not going to achieve our targets and will likely be shy by 2% and if we do nothing we will be shy by 3% or 4%. SEAI (sustainable energy authority of Ireland) predicts for every 1% we miss our targets we could be getting fines anywhere from €65m to €100m.

Minister Naughten gave the commitment today that the renewable heat incentive (RHI) would be up and running by 2017

The Government is becoming more engaged in this area now and it would rather pay this money out to develop the renewable sector rather than pay fines.

“Minister Naughten gave the commitment today that the renewable heat incentive (RHI) would be up and running by 2017,” said Caslin. He believes this is crucial for targets to be met and the sector to develop.

Mechanisms to sell

Caslin said farmers need a properly structured renewable energy industry to sell their produce. Mechanisms to sell bioenergy are only really falling into place now. “We need to instil more confidence that end users know that farmers have the capability and knowledge to supply them with the quality of material on an ongoing basis,” explained Caslin.