Ireland's Ministry for the Environment, Climate and Communications has announced the introduction of a rebate scheme for rooftop PV installations in non-residential buildings.
Under the new scheme, which will be managed by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI), businesses, public organizations and community groups will be entitled to maximum rebates of €2,400 per project.
“In 2022 the maximum grant available is €2,400 and it will remain at this level for 2023,” the government said in a statement.
The program will be open to PV systems up to 6 kW in size that operate under the country's net metering scheme, which was introduced in December 2021. The scheme is designed to deploy around 380 MW of solar capacity.
For PV systems ranging in size from 6 kW to 50 kW, the scheme grants a Clean Export Guarantee (CEG) tariff for surplus power injected into the grid. And for 2022, the tariff was set at €0.135/kWh.
“The CEP will be offered at a fixed rate for 15 years and eligible volumes will be capped at 80% of generation capacity, to encourage self-consumption,” the government said in December.
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Eligible projects must have a minimum self-consumption rate of 70%. In order to support this high rate, the Irish government has suggested the adoption of smart meters.
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It does beg the question: why any subsidy (rebate) at all? Why not just offer wholesale rates to any & all that export? Why limit the scheme to 380MW – given that Ireland faces and energy disaster – perhaps it is time to take the foot off the brake. But of course this would upset vested interests, & we can’t have that on the Emerald Isle – can we?