The Government is committed to trebling the amount of electricity produced from renewable energy sources in Ireland by 2010, Minister for Marine and Natural Resources Noel Dempsey said today.
Mr Dempsey said the Government would do all it could to foster an environment where providers could reach the ambitious target of 15 per cent of total energy production from renewable sources in four years.
Mr Dempsey said great progress had been made in recent years as he announced the Renewable Energy Development 2006 document, which details current policies in the sector and the challenges ahead.
There are now more than 50 windfarms connected to the electricity network, while 860 megawatts of energy from renewable sources are connected to the national grid using biomass, water and wind-powered technologies.
Meeting the target will require that figure to double to 1650 megawatts by 2010. Mr Dempsey said the Government was putting a support infrastructure in place to encourage all sectors of the economy to switch to renewable fuels or sustainable energy generation.
"Our support programmes and the accelerated liberalisation programme for green electricity have more than doubled the capacity of renewable energy powered electricity generating plants connected to the electricity network in the last two years," he said.
PA