Agency unveils eco upgrade plan

Proposals to upgrade the energy efficiency of more than a million homes, at a cost of €6 billion, have been included in a new corporate strategy outlined by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland this afternoon.

The authority, formerly known as Sustainable Energy Ireland, said it is seeing a rapid increase in the number of homes being upgraded, from 90,000 over the past five years, to an estimated 60,000 this year alone.

Dividing its goals into five, 15 and 25-year strategies, the authority said its immediate priorities were to ensure decent standards of comfort and energy affordability for all, and to “ramp up” the number of homes being retro-fitted with energy saving measures to more then 100,000 in 2011.

The authority said it also wants to ensure that by 2025:

- most new car purchases are electric vehicles

- renewable sources for heat are the norm and represent half of the State’s electricity usage

- ocean energy starting to show a significant contribution

- all buildings would be energy self-sufficient

By 2035, the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland plans to have an energy system rooted in locally sourced, green electricity, with the state exporting electricity to Europe.

It also wants to see close to zero-carbon energy, and a carbon neutral transport system resourced from green electricity and biofuels.

Commenting on the €6 billion bill for retro-fitting more than one million homes for energy efficiency, Professor Owen Lewis told The Irish Times the authority was in discussions with a number of individual banks as well as the Irish Banking Federation on how to provide loans for householders.

Prof Owens said there were currently no proposals similar to those in England where money would be provided for houses, linked to that country’s council tax.

But he emphasised there was considerable scope for a “pay as you save scheme” where payments for retrofitting energy saving measures were made from money saved from heating bills.

The Department of Energy is also looking at a making it compulsory for energy providers, such as the ESB, to instigate an incentive scheme for its customers.

While the details of this scheme are still being discussed Minister Eamon Ryan has lent his support for such measures to incentivise householders.