More information about the programme:
Goal 
Main focus
Funding
Projects

Goal

The goal of the programme is to make a positive impact on the implementation of renewable energy in Ireland. The refined programme strategy will thus focus on areas that can have a significant impact in Ireland with utility-scale, grid connected renewable energy featuring strongly. The programme will seek those applications that present excellent possibilities for replication and acceleration of the take up of appropriate renewable energy.

The RE RD&D Programme aims to stimulate the deployment of renewable energy by:

• Accelerating the development and deployment in the Irish marketplace of competitive renewable energy products, processes and systems.
• Providing support for solutions that enable technical and other barriers to market uptake and/or modal switching to be overcome.
• Establishing, where necessary, and strengthening, where possible, a national capacity to access, develop and apply international class RD&D in a way that can best meet specific Irish needs on a continuing basis.
• Facilitating and providing guidance to policy makers

These remain the core goals of the programme. In addition the programme will seek to:

• Target specific technologies
• Support only high quality, well founded projects
• Attain value for money in all project and commissioned work
• Encourage replication of demonstrations
• Undertake effective dissemination of information gained and lessons learned
• Measure and evaluate the success of funded projects
• Be flexible, within the priorities set out
• Have an impact on:

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Main focus

The main focus of the RE RD&D programme is on stimulating the deployment of renewable energies. As such, the following types of RD&D activities will be given priority:

• Demonstration of technology innovation: aimed at higher risk, major projects that represent significant technical advances and/or cost reductions and have good replication potential;
• Innovative market demonstrations, where proven technology is used to demonstrate non technical innovation (e.g. contractual arrangements, financing) for applications with high replication potential;
• Independent monitoring of projects/technologies;
• R&D aimed at the integration of renewable energy into the electricity market and the national electricity grid (and network);
• R&D into overcoming the barriers to development and deployment of large scale RE projects;
• Data monitoring, forecasting, communications and control of large renewable energy systems;
• Specific applied research projects in renewable energy fields by research centres, third level institutions and centres of excellence with a high level of expertise in the relevant area;

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Funding

The programme is open to a wide range of research, development and demonstration projects under the support mechanism categories proposed in the Green Paper. This categorisation, and the level of support in each case, is related to the character of benefits and risks involved.

1. Shared cost Demonstration: Projects demonstrating particular renewable energy technologies or applications which, although at or near commercial viability and having potential for replication, currently face market barriers due to lack of expertise, knowledge or market confidence. The objective here is to gain information which will be made available to potential replicators to encourage action without further financial support under the programme. To facilitate this, independent monitoring of the programmes cost may be required.
2. Shared cost R&D: Research and development into innovative technologies, systems or marketing approaches which support the commercial exploitation of renewable energies, including applied research and development, technology transfer and adaptation and market research/feasibility studies.
3. Commissioned public good activities: activities directed at increasing the value and impact of the programme results, which will ultimately be used to inform policy (commissioned by separate Invitations for Tender only – not open to ad hoc proposals). All funding is subject to European Community limits on levels of State Aid. Funding support is expected to be available at up to the following percentages of eligible project costs:

• Shared cost Demonstration up to 25% (in some cases up to 10%)
• Shared cost R&D up to 45%
• Public good R&D up to 100%

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Projects

Details of some of the projects supported are available at Projects Funded to Date – Biomass.

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