Poots hails windfarm plan as law change is approved

The renewable energy source is also becoming more and more visible in the Londonderry area, with two windfarms under construction at Curryfree and Slieve Kirk, and motorists have watched in amazement in recent days as huge parts of the turbines have been hauled along rural roads.

Mr Poots was seeking approval for the draft Renewables Obligation (Amendment) Order (Northern Ireland) 2011 which introduces a number of changes he hopes will make the Northern Ireland Renewables Obligation (NIRO) more effective and capable of delivering targets for renewable energy and electricity.

He said progress was being made and that in 2009-2010, there was almost a 30 per cent increase in the number of renewable obligation certificates (ROCs) issued in Northern Ireland compared with the previous year.

This compared with a 20 per cent increase for Wales, 14 per cent for Scotland and 8 per cent for England.

He hailed the announcement by Gaelectric last month that it will invest £58m at Dunbeg, County Londonderry, building a wind farm with the capacity to generate up to 42 mega watts (MW) of electricity as encouraging.

Addressing the house he said: “The latest changes to the NIRO help to ensure that we continue to incentivise a broad range of technologies across all sizes, and it is important that we have as wide an energy mix as we can to maximise our potential to develop and to meet our targets.

“I am encouraged by recent investment announcements in renewable energy, such as Gaelectric’s £58 million investment in a wind farm in County Londonderry, which could provide enough electricity to power 24,000 homes.”

The draft changes to local renewable energy law were approved by the Assembly.

Mr Poots says they are designed to ensure that the NIRO continues to encourage renewable electricity generation while ensuring that any additional costs to the consumer remain minimal.

The proposed amendments will double the support offered under the NIRO for electricity generated from anaerobic digestion (AD); introduce higher ROC levels for those generators that were accredited before 1 April 2010 and wish to add further generating capacity; introduce sustainability criteria for biomass and bioliquids that are used in the generation of electricity but excluding the use of biomass or biogas that is made from waste, landfill gas or sewage gas.