The Irish Governments Green Paper on Energy entitled Towards a Sustainable Energy Future for Ireland' was published in October 2006. Many interested parties made submissions, including a proposal from the Commission for Energy Regulation (CER') to establish an independent state-owned network company for electricity. The key element of this proposal, however, is that the proposed company be run on a not for profit' basis.

The Green Paper on Energy sets out Ireland's energy policy options for the future and is stated to contain:

"policy options that create a vision for energy supply and energy use that meet the needs of consumers and business and that can support and sustain our economic growth".

The Green Paper contains a number of key proposals in the area of wind energy:

  • a revised target for 2010 of 15 per cent of electricity consumption to be met by renewable energy, rising to 30 per cent by 2020;
  • a minimum of 400MW of new renewable capacity to be supported by the Renewable Energy Feed In Tariff (REFIT) scheme; and
  • the support of offshore wind, wave and tidal ocean devices through research, development and demonstration.

The 2006 Green Paper points to problems associated with the large-scale integration of renewable energy onto an already strained grid network. In addition to the ongoing upgrade of Ireland's grid network, the construction of large scale interconnection facilities with Britain and beyond will be important in addressing this issue. Furthermore, developments in energy storage technology in the medium term are likely to impact on network constraint in the future.

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