The Green Party may no longer be in government, but taking steps to address climate change and meet targets set for the State by the European Union still ranks high among the stated priorities of the ruling Coalition.
Climate is mentioned 48 times in the 162-page programme for government, shy of education, housing and health but in advance of tourism, for instance, a sector long seen as key for the indigenous economy.
The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland is targeting people aggressively with an advertising campaign promoting grants on offer to undertake energy upgrades for their homes.
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And just this week, the Minister for Climate Darragh O’Brien announced enhanced retrofit and renewable energy supports, including a new €2,000 grant for people replacing an existing fossil fuel boiler.
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For all that, the State is well behind its 2030 targets on climate emissions in areas including the number of electric vehicles in circulation and retrofitting. As of now, there appears to be little or no chance of meeting our commitments, a position that opens the State to financial penalty.
Part of the issue is that, for all environmental merits of home upgrades, the financial benefits for households are longer term. Crunching the numbers, many households struggle to see how they can afford such upgrades.
That is why the Government has been forced to increase the incentives available.
When it comes to solar panels, part of the attraction has been the ability to sell surplus power back to the grid. People can make up to €400 from this without any tax liability – and if the utility account is in joint names, that rises to €800.
However, when UCC academic Paul Deane flagged earlier this month that payments for selling power back to the grid would eventually be phased out, the Government very consciously refused to rule it out.
[ Benefits of Ireland’s solar boom should not go only to the big energy firmsOpens in new window ]
Deane’s comments came as electricity suppliers failed to raise the amount they pay households under the microgeneration credit even as they announced chunky rises in the unit rate they charge those same households for energy supply.
A lecturer in clean energy futures, Deane knows the area but if the Government is serious about incentivising retrofitting, raising a doubt on a benefit of up to €800 a year can only be counterproductive.
The department may say, as was reported, that the main benefit of installing solar panels “is based on the benefits of self-consumption, rather than any additional revenue from selling surplus electricity to the grid”, but as the Government prepares to announce this year’s budget, it should bear in mind that any doubt on the financial return from retrofitting just undermines the policy it wants to promote.
