asked the Minister for Energy if he intends to continue with research work on alternative energy sources with the same financial commitment as heretofore considering the changed position with regard to energy costs in recent times.

20.

asked the Minister for Energy the measures the Government are taking to encourage greater research into alternative sources of energy, particularly wind, wave, tidal and solar power; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

I propose to take Questions Nos. 11 and 20 together.

The Government's policy in regard to alternative sources of energy is to assess the potential of these sources and where appropriate to encourage their further development. The main emphasis of the current programme funded through my Department is on the assessment of the potential of wind-power and on encouragement of the development of hydro power. However, attention has also been given to other possible alternative energy sources, for example wave, solar — both active and passive — biomass and geothermal energy, and grants have been made available for Irish research projects in these areas.

Individuals or bodies in Ireland can apply, and indeed have with some success applied, for grants under the EC Commission's Energy Research and Demonstration programmes.

While it is necessary at all times to assess rigorously the benefits achieved by these expenditures, I believe that it will be in the national interest to continue this programme in some form in the years ahead. While changes in the prices and availability of more common energy forms must obviously be taken into account, the longer term perspective relating to the alternatives to which the questions relate is probably still as relevant as it was some years ago.

A financial commitment will be involved. Will the same level of financial commitment continue to be available for research in these areas to the different bodies who have responsibility for this research work as has been available to them for the last four or five years?

The amount of money available has declined somewhat, as the Deputy is probably aware from looking at the Estimates for the last number of years. I believe, and the Government support the view, that we should, where possible try to maintain the level of funding available for these projects, and with the assistance of my Minister of State I will be endeavouring to ensure that funding is available in 1987 to continue with the experimental projects which have taken place and which we hope to encourage.

Do I understand from the Minister's reply that the major research and funding will be in the area of windpower and hydro which the Minister mentioned——

That is right.

——and that to a lesser extent experimental work is taking place in regard to wave, solar, biomass etc.?

That is correct.

What research and development are taking place in the hydro area at the moment? Can the Minister specify the progress in regard to windpower?

Regarding hydro, following a competition for the design and construction of small scale hydro installations held by the Department of Energy in late 1980 and 1981, 13 projects were grant aided to the value of £98,800. In October 1985 the report on the national hydro resource survey was announced and my Department have been asked to draw up guidelines for the establishment of a new scheme to promote the demonstration of small scale hydro developments. The Deputy will be aware that we have published a report on the national hydro resource survey indicating that over 3,500 sites were identified as suitable for development of hydro projects. That report was published in October 1985 at a price of £10. The Deputy also inquired about wind.

Progress on wind power.

In 1980 the Department initiated a wind power demonstration programme. The Department erected eight wind turbines in co-operation with other bodies. The purpose of the programme was to maximise the efficiency of these wind turbines and to establish the best energy costs that can be obtained from these machines. The machines cover a range of sizes, locations and uses. In 1984 the Department signed a contract with the EC in respect of a wind energy demonstration project under which the EC agreed to provide £158,000 over two and a half years. This money is being used towards the cost of monitoring the performance of five of these machines together with carrying out routine maintenance and any modifications considered necessary. The early results of the wind power programme indicate that it is difficult and expensive to maintain some of these machines in working condition and in some cases the isolated locations cause problems with regard to servicing and obtaining parts. The items being monitored include the output from windmill, wind direction, wind speed at two different heights, air temperatures etc. It is hoped to have some results by the summer of this year, but for a variety of reasons, for example, problems with the monitoring equipment and computer programmes together with down time with some of the windmills, results are not expected now until 1987. The eight windmills are located at Inis Oirr in County Galway, Ballyferriter in County Kerry, Sligo, Ballinamore in County Leitrim, Fermoy in County Cork, Creash in County Mayo, Kinsealy in County Dublin — take note — and Malin Head, County Donegal.

The Minister gave a figure of the savings on imported fuel through hydro power of 50,000 tonnes. Can he give a similar figure for other alternative sources of energy savings on imported fuel?

I suspect that we might be in the realm of hypothesis if I were to attempt to do it, and I would hate to mislead the House.

I take up questions nominated for priority now.