Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 9 April 2024
76. Deputy Darren O'Rourke asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications to provide a breakdown of the projected/estimated targets for solar PV in 2025, 2026, 2027, 2028, 2029 and 2030; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13928/24]
View answerIreland’s Climate Action Plan targets increasing the proportion of renewable electricity generation to 80% by 2030, with CAP 23 including an increased target of up to 5GW of Solar by 2025 and 8GW by 2030.
Ireland’s Solar PV ambition is rapidly transforming our energy system, with ESBN recently confirming that more than 1 GW of solar generation, including over 400 MW of rooftop solar and nearly 600 MW of grid-scale solar, is now connected to our electricity network.
This acceleration in Solar has been driven by homes, businesses and communities across the country and is underpinned by the ambition of RePowerEU, which was introduced to accelerate the energy transition and rapidly reduce European dependence on Russian fossil fuels. The core actions of RePower EU are the diversification of our energy supplies, securing affordable energy supplies, saving energy and investment in renewables. Ireland has committed to achieve an average 7% per annum.
Solar PV panels are installed under a number of scenarios and are supported under a number of Department funded and SEAI administered schemes. For domestic installations, solar PV is installed on new homes, as one of the measures to achieve compliance with Part L of the Building Regulations. They are also installed on existing buildings through grant supports offer by Government, through the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI).
The Government approved the Microgeneration Support Scheme (MSS) in December 2021 to support 380 MW of new micro-generation by 2030 under the Climate Action Plan 21. This amounts to 60,000 homes and 9,000 non-domestic installations, such as small farms and businesses, schools, and community groups etc, which would generate over 300 GWh of renewable electricity per annum, with the potential to abate 1.4 million tonnes of CO2eq over the lifetime of the installations.
Since 2018, the SEAI has supported the installation of domestic Solar PV systems for over 44,000 homes, with demand for the domestic Solar PV grant increasing significantly since 2022, reaching a record of over 22,000 in 2023 alone. For 2024, the SEAI is forecasting to support over 26,000 homes.
