As we await the outcome from DETI regarding the NIRO closure to Onshore Wind Consultation, an oral briefing from DETI to the Enterprise Trade and Investment committee on 10th November 2015 reveals some information regarding the consultation and the reasoning behind it.
- There were 475 responses to the consultation.
- Approximately 300 of these were “template” responses
- Respondents stated their views on grace period criteria and the abrupt ending to the NIRO for onshore wind.
- Perhaps surprisingly, approximately 20% of responses supported the early closure, claiming that onshore wind has been “over subsidised”
DETI’s argument for the proposed early closure centred around Northern Ireland following Great Britain’s lead on an early closure which announced in June of this year.
- They claimed that should NI not align with GB on ROCs, the costs for energy would be “desocialised” as any additional cost that would be incurred by keeping the NIRO open to 2017 would have to be covered by NI and none of the cost would be passed on to GB consumers.
- The cost for the average household for keeping the NIRO estimated at around £29 per household.
- They claimed the DETI minister Jonathan Bell attempted to have the date for qualifying for a grace period for single wind turbines as 30th October 2015, a month later, but this was rejected by DECC.
Committee members argued that Northern Ireland was not on a level playing field with GB due to the fact that while there remains a Feed In Tariff (FIT) in GB there is currently nothing to replace the NIRO system for onshore wind.