N Ireland to cut solar ROCs, keep wind rates by 2017

Jul 7, 2014 - Northern Ireland’s Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (DETI) on Friday said it will keep wind power subsidies unchanged until at least 2017 but unveiled plans to reduce solar project incentives under the Renewable Obligation Certificates (ROCs) programme.

The proposals were presented last week by trade and investment minister Arlene Foster as part of consultations under the Northern Ireland Renewables Obligation (NIRO) scheme. The review aims to adjust incentives for small scale installations to the costs of equipment and deployment, Foster noted.

Thus, solar plants of up to 50 kW will receive 1.6 ROCs per 1 MWh, instead of 4 ROCs currently. Facilities with capacities of between 50 kW and 250 kW will be eligible for 1.6 ROCs per MWh, compared with 2 ROCs per 1 MWh at present.

The incentives for small-scale wind farms remain unchanged by 2017 at 4 ROCs per 1 MWh for installations of up to 250 MW and 1 ROC per 1 MWh for facilities of between 250 kW and 5 MW.

Anaerobic digestion (AD) projects of less than 500 kW will continue to get 4 ROCs per 1 MWh and plants of up to 5 MW - 3 ROCs per 1 MWh. The rates for hydropower projects will also remain unchanged at 4, 3, 2 ROCs per 1 MWh for facilities of up to 20kW, 250 kW, 5 MW, respectively.

Northern Ireland does not have a feed-in tariff (FiT) mechanism for small renewable energy projects and developers rely on the ROC scheme for small-scale projects. However, the NIRO programme will be replaced by a small scale FiT from 2017, while large-scale projects will receive support under the Contracts for Difference (COD) programme.

Choose your newsletter by Renewables Now. Join for free!