Aengus Ó Snodaigh
Question:57. Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications the estimated cost in a full year of providing 900 additional electric car charging points. [43905/20]
View answerWednesday, 16 December 2020
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Written answers
The Government is fully committed to supporting an expansion and modernisation of the electric vehicle charging network which stays ahead of demand over the coming years. My Department supports this commitment through relevant schemes such as those administered by the SEAI and an ESB project supported under the Climate Action Fund.
There are currently circa 650 standard public charge points and over 100 fast charge stations in Ireland (the majority of which are operated by the ESB). An interactive map showing ESB charger locations and their status can be found at www.esb.ie/ecars.
€10 million has been committed from the Climate Action Fund to promote the charging network and this has leveraged a further €10 million investment from ESB. This intervention alone will result in:
- 90 additional high power chargers (150kW), each capable of charging two vehicles
- 52 additional fast chargers (50kW), which may replace existing 22 kW standard chargers
- 264 replacement standard chargers (22kW) with more modern technology and with each consisting of two charge points
The SEAI Public Charge Point Scheme has been in place since September 2019 and will continue to be available during 2021 to provide local authorities with a grant of up to €5,000 to support the development of on-street public chargers. The primary focus of this scheme is to provide support for the installation of infrastructure which will facilitate owners of electric vehicles (EVs), who do not have access to a private parking space but rely on parking their vehicles in public places near their homes, to charge their EVs. In terms of cost to the Exchequer this scheme would potentially require in the region of €4.5 million to support the installation of 900 charge points. However, overall costs for installing any given charge point will also be influenced by type of charger, location and scope of civil and electrical works to be carried out which can very significantly from site to site. It should also be noted that several private entities are operating in this space however information relating to the costs associated with these sites would be commercially sensitive and therefore not publically available.
Combined with an effective public charging network, Ireland's home charging policy will be key in helping to sustain and support the expected growth of electric vehicles on Irish roads. Charging while at home accounts for around 80% of electric vehicle charging in Ireland and it is best practice, internationally, to promote home charging as the most common and cost effective form of charging. To support home charging, the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) on behalf of my Department, administers an EV home charger grant of up to €600 towards the purchase and installation of an EV home charger unit. Again in terms of costs to Exchequer the cost of providing support to install 900 of these home chargers would be in the region of €540,000 but again the full costs of installation will depend on location, type of charger being installed and specific site characteristics.