The Government is staring into a substantial headwind of between €98mn and €500mn in EU fines for missing 2020 energy targets. The Renewable Energy Support Scheme (RESS), the mechanism that was supposed to add further renewable capacity to the system to avoid those fines, has yet to get out of the starting blocks.
So, is there anything the government can do to save the taxpayer from these fines?
The Irish Wind Energy Association (IWEA) has put forward a simple proposal to do just that: an extension to the REFIT 2 scheme.
In this week’s blog, we look at whether it would work, and what other options are currently available to the government