A Community Energy (Co-Ownership) Bill 2017 has now been launched.

The Bill, introduced by the Green Party, aims to empower local communities by giving them the option of buying up to 30% of a local renewable energy development.

Green Party spokesperson for Energy, Gearóid Fitzgibbon, said the Bill offers the opportunity to localise the ownership and the benefits of the renewable energy production in the communities where these resources are situated.

He said: "Evidence for the appetite for community energy programmes is already out there; in Tipperary, in just 5 years, a group of communities I work with have leveraged almost €7 million in investment, upgraded over 700 homes, and supported over 100 local jobs. The Bill sets out a community co-operative approach, which, together with microgeneration for rooftop solar and other sources, will allow communities and local people to become the drivers and beneficiaries of the transition to a low carbon energy system."

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Green Party Leader Eamon Ryan said: "Ireland has not yet developed any kind of workable community energy sector. Germany over the last 10 years has seen the development of over 1,000 locally owned renewable energy cooperatives - this means local jobs and investment. The state has backed this set up and even has a national office for energy coops. Our Bill begins this process of establishing locally owned renewable energy co-ops."

(CD/LM)