While Ireland sleepwalks into an energy crisis, our 2030 renewable energy targets slip further out of reach.
When our targets were first set, this challenge was so enormous that it deserved the same urgency shown during the COVID-19 pandemic or the financial crash. Instead, it’s been business as usual, with continued delays, red tape and sluggish decision-making.
2030 is no longer a distant milestone. While renewable targets were hastily revised upwards in 2023, progress on meaningful policy follow-through remains at a crawl.
Meanwhile, the people ready to lead this charge, who have the energy, expertise and funding, are growing frustrated and stepping away.
Nowhere is this more evident than in our efforts to decarbonise Ireland’s heat use, recently laid bare at an Irish Bioenergy Association seminar on biomass.
Two key policies needed to drive renewable uptake in the heat sector remain stalled by unforeseen delays, the latest examples of a system stuck in low gear.
SSRH
When it was announced that large energy users under the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) could access the Government’s €300m Support Scheme for Renewable Heat (SSRH), the move was hailed as a pragmatic step to accelerate renewable heat uptake in the sector.
The scheme offers either capital grants for biomass systems or an operational aid tariff, paid over 15 years based on metered heat use, to support the switch from fossil fuels to biomass or biogas.
However, while the tariff is financially attractive for biomass, the rate for biogas remains disproportionately low, making it unviable for most.
Originally limited to non-ETS companies, where uptake has been low, the scheme’s expansion to ETS companies was expected to significantly boost the transition to renewable heat among these high-energy users.
Improving uptake
The scheme was slow to gain traction initially, hindered by significant red tape, slow application processing, limited promotion and perceptions around biomass fuel. But uptake has improved recently, particularly among smaller energy users.
Paula Lynch, programme manager at SEAI, explained to attendees that 66 sites are currently receiving operational tariffs. About half of these are agricultural, including pig and poultry farms and mushroom units.
The next largest sectors are hotels and hospitality, followed by nursing homes.
To date, €3.8 million has been paid out under the scheme for these 66 sites, resulting in the delivery of 113 gigawatt hours (GWh) of renewable heat. The total commitment for the current 66 sites amounts to €26 million over 15 years, or approximately €1.7 million per year.
Currently, 30 live letters of offer have been issued. Lynch said she is confident that 80 premises will be on the payment cycle by year-end.
Interest
Lynch said the ETS sector represents a significant opportunity. While there has been interest from companies in the sector, it’s disheartening to have to turn them away at this stage, she added.
“If we consider the 113 GWh delivered from just 66 small SME sites, the impact of bringing even one ETS company on board would be substantial. Our targets would become much more achievable,” she said.
Delays
Seán Kinsella, principal officer at the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications (DECC), said it is the department’s intention to make the scheme available to large energy users which consume significant volumes of heat.
However, according to Kinsella, the department encountered issues last year due to changes in State aid guidelines. These require that any support exceeding one megawatt hour must go through a competitive process, such as an auction, and involve contracts for difference.
Forestry remains a major source of biomass for the heat sector.
Kinsella said that this approach is primarily designed for the electricity sector and is not well suited to heat. “You don’t see this throughout Europe, we don’t feel it’s appropriate for Ireland,” he said.
He explained that the department has engaged with the European Commission on the issue and is now seeking an exemption. The next step will be a public consultation, expected to launch within the next week or two. “It will be a short consultation,” he added.
Following that, the department will submit a formal notification to the Commission, a process expected to take a minimum of six months.
More delays
Kinsella also explained that the Government’s flagship policy expected to kickstart the biomethane industry in Ireland has faced another setback and is now unlikely to be in place by the revised date of 1 January 2026.
The Renewable Heat Obligation (RHO) is another new scheme aimed at driving the use of renewable fuels in the heat sector. First announced in 2019, the policy is expected to be the main support mechanism to develop Ireland’s anaerobic digestion sector, but has been plagued by delays.
Kinsella explained that the policy has now encountered issues in receiving approval from the European Commission, and will require further work, likely to delay implementation even more.
Issue
The RHO, while not exclusive to biomethane, was tasked with encouraging the development of a domestic biomethane industry — central to the construction of new anaerobic digestion plants and achieving Ireland’s 2030 Climate Action targets.
In response to a question from the Irish Farmers Journal, Kinsella explained that when assessing the sources of biomethane to meet the obligation, it was found that biomethane available in Europe could likely be sourced more cheaply than it could be produced domestically.
He stated that imported biomethane from the continent would likely come into the Irish market and undermine efforts to develop an indigenous sector here. So a mechanism had to be included to ensure that domestic biomethane could at least compete on a level playing field, he said.
A multiplier was proposed, whereby Irish biomethane would receive more certificates than imported biomethane.
“We’re not looking to put a multiplier in place to give domestic biomethane an advantage over imported biomethane — we’re only looking for a level playing field. This will, however, need to be justified to the European Commission,” he said.
Aurivo operates a biomass boiler at its dairy processing facility in Ballaghaderreen, Roscommon.
Multipliers are common in such schemes, but the focus is usually on fuel type rather than the origin of the fuel. The European Commission is seeking more information on how the proposed multiplier would not interfere with the EU internal single market. “It’s a cross-border trade issue,” he said. This issue was not foreseen by the department he said.
Timeline
The scheme will require new legislation, which was needed regardless of the delay and work has started on drafting this. However, the latest setback means that the Government will have to make a formal notification to the European Commission. While a lot of preparatory work is being done in parallel, the 1 January 2026 implementation date is now out, he said.
Kinsella could not provide a new timeline, but he said the aim is to implement the scheme as soon as possible. The delay on any real detail of the RHO is now directly preventing a number of significant biomethane projects from proceeding.
Grants
Kinsella did confirm however that DECC is working on their larger second capital grant scheme and reiterated that it will run from 2026 to 2030.
While Ireland sleepwalks into an energy crisis, our 2030 renewable energy targets slip further out of reach.
When our targets were first set, this challenge was so enormous that it deserved the same urgency shown during the COVID-19 pandemic or the financial crash. Instead, it’s been business as usual, with continued delays, red tape and sluggish decision-making.
2030 is no longer a distant milestone. While renewable targets were hastily revised upwards in 2023, progress on meaningful policy follow-through remains at a crawl.
Meanwhile, the people ready to lead this charge, who have the energy, expertise and funding, are growing frustrated and stepping away.
Nowhere is this more evident than in our efforts to decarbonise Ireland’s heat use, recently laid bare at an Irish Bioenergy Association seminar on biomass.
Two key policies needed to drive renewable uptake in the heat sector remain stalled by unforeseen delays, the latest examples of a system stuck in low gear.
SSRH
When it was announced that large energy users under the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) could access the Government’s €300m Support Scheme for Renewable Heat (SSRH), the move was hailed as a pragmatic step to accelerate renewable heat uptake in the sector.
The scheme offers either capital grants for biomass systems or an operational aid tariff, paid over 15 years based on metered heat use, to support the switch from fossil fuels to biomass or biogas.
However, while the tariff is financially attractive for biomass, the rate for biogas remains disproportionately low, making it unviable for most.
Originally limited to non-ETS companies, where uptake has been low, the scheme’s expansion to ETS companies was expected to significantly boost the transition to renewable heat among these high-energy users.
Improving uptake
The scheme was slow to gain traction initially, hindered by significant red tape, slow application processing, limited promotion and perceptions around biomass fuel. But uptake has improved recently, particularly among smaller energy users.
Paula Lynch, programme manager at SEAI, explained to attendees that 66 sites are currently receiving operational tariffs. About half of these are agricultural, including pig and poultry farms and mushroom units.
The next largest sectors are hotels and hospitality, followed by nursing homes.
To date, €3.8 million has been paid out under the scheme for these 66 sites, resulting in the delivery of 113 gigawatt hours (GWh) of renewable heat. The total commitment for the current 66 sites amounts to €26 million over 15 years, or approximately €1.7 million per year.
Currently, 30 live letters of offer have been issued. Lynch said she is confident that 80 premises will be on the payment cycle by year-end.
Interest
Lynch said the ETS sector represents a significant opportunity. While there has been interest from companies in the sector, it’s disheartening to have to turn them away at this stage, she added.
“If we consider the 113 GWh delivered from just 66 small SME sites, the impact of bringing even one ETS company on board would be substantial. Our targets would become much more achievable,” she said.
Delays
Seán Kinsella, principal officer at the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications (DECC), said it is the department’s intention to make the scheme available to large energy users which consume significant volumes of heat.
However, according to Kinsella, the department encountered issues last year due to changes in State aid guidelines. These require that any support exceeding one megawatt hour must go through a competitive process, such as an auction, and involve contracts for difference.
Forestry remains a major source of biomass for the heat sector.
Kinsella said that this approach is primarily designed for the electricity sector and is not well suited to heat. “You don’t see this throughout Europe, we don’t feel it’s appropriate for Ireland,” he said.
He explained that the department has engaged with the European Commission on the issue and is now seeking an exemption. The next step will be a public consultation, expected to launch within the next week or two. “It will be a short consultation,” he added.
Following that, the department will submit a formal notification to the Commission, a process expected to take a minimum of six months.
More delays
Kinsella also explained that the Government’s flagship policy expected to kickstart the biomethane industry in Ireland has faced another setback and is now unlikely to be in place by the revised date of 1 January 2026.
The Renewable Heat Obligation (RHO) is another new scheme aimed at driving the use of renewable fuels in the heat sector. First announced in 2019, the policy is expected to be the main support mechanism to develop Ireland’s anaerobic digestion sector, but has been plagued by delays.
Kinsella explained that the policy has now encountered issues in receiving approval from the European Commission, and will require further work, likely to delay implementation even more.
Issue
The RHO, while not exclusive to biomethane, was tasked with encouraging the development of a domestic biomethane industry — central to the construction of new anaerobic digestion plants and achieving Ireland’s 2030 Climate Action targets.
In response to a question from the Irish Farmers Journal, Kinsella explained that when assessing the sources of biomethane to meet the obligation, it was found that biomethane available in Europe could likely be sourced more cheaply than it could be produced domestically.
He stated that imported biomethane from the continent would likely come into the Irish market and undermine efforts to develop an indigenous sector here. So a mechanism had to be included to ensure that domestic biomethane could at least compete on a level playing field, he said.
A multiplier was proposed, whereby Irish biomethane would receive more certificates than imported biomethane.
“We’re not looking to put a multiplier in place to give domestic biomethane an advantage over imported biomethane — we’re only looking for a level playing field. This will, however, need to be justified to the European Commission,” he said.
Aurivo operates a biomass boiler at its dairy processing facility in Ballaghaderreen, Roscommon.
Multipliers are common in such schemes, but the focus is usually on fuel type rather than the origin of the fuel. The European Commission is seeking more information on how the proposed multiplier would not interfere with the EU internal single market. “It’s a cross-border trade issue,” he said. This issue was not foreseen by the department he said.
Timeline
The scheme will require new legislation, which was needed regardless of the delay and work has started on drafting this. However, the latest setback means that the Government will have to make a formal notification to the European Commission. While a lot of preparatory work is being done in parallel, the 1 January 2026 implementation date is now out, he said.
Kinsella could not provide a new timeline, but he said the aim is to implement the scheme as soon as possible. The delay on any real detail of the RHO is now directly preventing a number of significant biomethane projects from proceeding.
Grants
Kinsella did confirm however that DECC is working on their larger second capital grant scheme and reiterated that it will run from 2026 to 2030.
SHARING OPTIONS