MEASURES TO encourage members of the public to generate their own electricity are to be announced today by Minister for Energy Eamon Ryan.
Under the scheme, householders and landowners who own or install wind turbines are to be offered incentives to generate power for their own homes and the option to sell excess energy to the national grid. The Commission for Energy Regulation last week announced that the ESB is to buy electricity from microgenerators, ie householders with their own wind generators or other renewable electricity systems, at a tariff of nine cent per kilowatt.
Mr Ryan is to announce the incentives at the Renewable Energy Systems open day in Straffan, Co Kildare. He will also reveal details of a grant-assisted pilot study covering part of the cost of setting up a microgenerator.
A guide outlining how people can get their turbines connected to the national grid will also be released.
Ireland is considered to have some of the best energy-producing winds in Europe and a high percentage of the population live in one-off houses on sites suitable for wind-energy generation.
