Ivana Bacik
Question:67. Deputy Ivana Bacik asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications his plans to review the microgeneration scheme. [35603/23]
View answerTuesday, 25 July 2023
Questions (67)
Written answers
The Solar PV grant scheme under the Micro-generation Support Scheme (MSS) is administered by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland. The scheme came into operation in February 2022 and built on the success of the previous pilot version of the grant scheme.
In 2022, the SEAI received 16,819 applications to the Domestic Solar PV programme, which resulted in grant support for 10,018 homes, at a cost of €24.4m and a total installed capacity of 46.5 MW. This indicates an average installation size of 4.6kW. This is a significant increase from 2021 when 4,077 homes received grant support, with 16.3 MW capacity installed. Moreover, current projections for 2023 indicate an even higher level of applications will be supported.
While this high level of interest indicates that the current design of the MSS is working well, its operation and effectiveness will be kept under review by my department and adjustments made where necessary. One such review and adjustment was approved on July 4th of this year, when Government approved amendments to the existing Non-Domestic Microgeneration Scheme, operated by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI), to extend supports to a significantly wider range of businesses and non-domestic applicants.
Additionally, on the 5th of April 2023 the Government approved an amendment to Finance Bill 2023 to apply a zero percent VAT rate for the ‘Supply and installation of solar panels on domestic premises.”
Both of these measures have significantly improved the affordability of installing solar PV systems for homes, businesses and community organisations; providing more opportunities for those cohorts to be part of Ireland’s energy transition.