Member's statement: Renewable Energy
Member's statement by Mr David Honeyford on .
- MLA
- Mr David Honeyford
- Party at the time
- Alliance Party
- Date
- 24 February 2025
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- Renewable Energy
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4813387
Read the official Assembly record
Text
The growth of renewable energy offers several significant benefits for residents and environmental and economic advantages. At the weekend, however, we saw reports that, again, exposed the slow pace of change, which is made worse by renewable energy being continually wasted because it is not able to access our grid. It is outrageous that almost 40% of renewable energy is effectively dumped in the sea, four times the figure for the South. The inefficiency of that 40% loss has to be built into the cost of future connections and tenders, and that keeps the price higher than it should be. We live on an island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. We need to have a much greater focus and to work much faster on becoming self-sufficient in energy. Ultimately, doing so will protect our residents from volatile global energy prices by giving more stability to electricity costs. Energy security is vital, and we have felt the cost of relying on fossil-fuel imports. The cost of energy affects every household every week and month. Since 2021, the average price that a household pays in energy has more than doubled. Little has changed in the past year. Alliance wants to see the potential of being self-sufficient in energy realised through delivery, innovation and investment and this region being boosted as a green-energy hub, which will bring lower prices for every household. The Assembly and the Department for the Economy need to deliver in this mandate. We need movement on expanding our grid, alongside support for renewable energy, to happen at a much faster pace so that achieving the "80 by 30 target" for renewables is not just a headline but a reality.
282 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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