The Irish Department for Communications, Energy and Natural
Resources (the "Department"), the government department
having responsibility for energy policy, has published a welcome
update in relation to the status of the main public support scheme
for renewable energy projects in Ireland.
Since 2006, the main form of support that is available for the
development of such projects has been a feed-in tariff scheme known
as "RE-FIT". Payments under the scheme are made to
the purchasers of electricity from participating renewable
projects, in order to provide a hedge against the higher costs
associated with the generation of electricity from renewable
sources.
The rules of the RE-FIT scheme were published by the Department in
2006 and received European Commission state aid approval in
September 2007, and the first tranche of eligible projects were
admitted to the scheme – by way of the publication of a
statutory instrument – in July 2008.
