A new proposal has been put forward by the Irish Minister for Energy Eamon Ryan that could see up to 4,000 households getting paid to generate electricity using wind power.

In the scheme homeowners are being encouraged to install their own micro-generation units which will enable them to generate electricity to power their own homes and sell any excess energy back into the national grid. The first 4,000 people to install a wind turbine, solar panels or hydro-power generators would then be offered a juicy 19 cents per kilowatt hour for any surplus energy they supply back into the grid over the next three years. This is 5 cents more than it costs to power homes.

It is expected that the initiative could reduce the State’s energy bill of €6 billion a year that is spent on fossil fuels.

“Before you received your power from a central source and paid for it,” Mr Ryan said. “Now you can generate electricity to power your own home, and when you generate extra power you can expect a cheque rather than a bill in the post from the ESB.”

To add impetus to the scheme under the terms of the initiative the low-emission energy-generation units will be exempt from planning permission and the ESB will introduce a fast-tracked connection policy to make the process even easier for those who want to snap up the opportunity.

This represents a good start for a move towards taking up renewable energy in Ireland. According to Irish Farmers Association vice-president Seán O’Leary the tariff still needs to be lifted if it is going to match the prices that have been in place in Germany and France.