PV Power Play: Ireland’s Vision for a Sustainable Business Future????

The Ireland Climate Act provides for a national climate objective, which commits to pursue and achieve, no later than 2050, the transition to a climate-resilient, biodiversity-rich, environmental-sustainable, and climate-neutral economy. Greening business and enterprise is one of the six vital high-impact sectors in the Ireland climate action plan 2023. The plan is to achieve a 35% reduction in emissions across businesses and enterprises by 2030. The government plan is to break the link between fossil fuels and economic progress by decarbonising industry and enterprise. It is vital, therefore, that businesses are now afforded the same opportunity to start their energy transition journey. Not only is this important for individual businesses and community organisations, but with the additional challenges identified in Climate Action Plan 2023, supporting businesses to invest in solar PV will also facilitate those businesses to be able to participate in schemes that give people more control over when and how they use electricity.

The Government of Ireland recently approved the amendment to the existing Non-Domestic Microgeneration Scheme, operated by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI), to extend support to a wider range of businesses and non-domestic applicants. The aim of this new scheme amendment is to help businesses decarbonise their energy use and reduce their costs. It will also provide a solution to mitigate this price volatility, whilst at the same time empowering those businesses to also be able to reduce their own emissions and support the local electricity grid. The new scheme amendments allow for the expansion of grant supports for installation sizes up to 1,000kWp capacity – significantly above the 6kWp limit previously under the scheme. An installation size of 1000 kWp equates to approximately 2,500 solar PV panels (using 400Watt panel), which could be accommodated on a large factory or warehouse rooftop.

Making grants available to the maximum range of businesses as part of a pilot programme also facilitates the assessment of the full level of demand across the industry for solar PV solutions. This will also provide valuable data regarding potential multi-annual support for SMEs. The new range of installation sizes will cover a significant variety of businesses, from small local shops to large manufacturing facilities. It will also be available for public buildings, sports clubs and community organisations. The new funding ranges from €2,700 to €162,600 to support an even wider range of businesses to switch to solar. This will typically support 20-30% of the investment cost, reducing payback to as little as 5 years.

This move by Government shows Ireland’s continued commitment to supporting all their citizens, businesses, and community organisations – to be part of the journey to a cleaner, cheaper and more renewable energy future. It also shows strong cross-Government commitment to developing innovative solutions that can not only provide support to businesses to manage their energy costs but also empower those businesses to invest in an enduring solution which also reduces their carbon footprint and supports the local electricity grid. ?The Government of Ireland want businesses to see the opportunities renewable energy can provide in reducing costs, reducing carbon, and increasing sustainability. Businesses using renewables are more resilient to price volatility and well-placed as the Government decarbonises the economy. This measure underlines the Government’s commitment to help businesses save money on their energy bills and reduce their carbon footprint as they contribute positively to our national climate change targets. The amended scheme will operate on an introductory basis to the end of 2023, following which it will be assessed and subject to the normal budgetary process into 2024/2025. SEAI has implemented these new changes, and the application is now open[1].

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Gaye Edobor, Plan Energy

[1] https://mgen.seai.ie/