Response to the Northern Ireland Assembly Committee for Enterprise Trade and Investment's consultation into renewable energy

This short paper is a response to the renewable energy enquiry being conducted by the Committee for Enterprise Trade and Investment (ETI), entitled "Inquiry into barriers to the development of renewable energy production and its associated contribution to the Northern Ireland Economy". The paper has been prepared on behalf of two consortiums undertaking major European Union projects in the area of renewable energy in the northern periphery of Europe. The aim of this paper is to share the knowledge obtained from these projects in the hope of benefiting the inquiry. The two European projects are - • MicrE which is concerned with developing services to help SMEs transfer to renewable energy solutions from traditional sources; and • SMALLEST which is concerned with establishing an innovative service to raise the scale and quality of training, mentoring and support for rural communities needed to develop micro renewable energy sources. Both are funded by the INTEREG IVB (Transnational) Northern Periphery Program (NPP), which aims to remove barriers to the participating countries development, by encouraging transnational co-operation between the regions of Europe in predetermined subject areas. This report utilises the practical and theoretical expertise of the SMALLEST and MicrE partners and their respective business advisory groups in identifying the barriers to renewable energy adoption in Northern Ireland. From the resultant data a number of barriers were identified - • Unstable incentives make financial planning difficult; • Capital grants that are awarded to financially unsustainable projects are damaging the reputation of the industry; • Overabundance of advisory bodies creating confusion amongst consumers; • Ever increasing costs coupled with time delays in joining the grid make the initial start-up process capital intensive; • There is a lack of cohesion between governmental departments; and • Neighbours in the UK and Ireland are benefiting from financial incentives that are unavailable to organisations in Northern Ireland. The report concludes by making a number of suggestions which may help to alleviate the perceived problems. • Introduce comparable incentives to the UK and Ireland; • Fewer advisory bodies and tighter regulation; • The promotion of renewable energy management and innovation training; • Utilise the experience of countries in the early stages of developing a renewable energy market in addition to industry leaders; and • Increase the level of collaboration with bodies specialising in renewable energy.