Every rose has its thorn: the importance of public awareness to domestic solar PV take-up

Minister Naughten announced that a new scheme for rooftop solar for residential customers, starting on the 31st of July. The new scheme sees a grant administered by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) for domestic solar PV installation on houses built before 2011. The pilot grant will run until 2020 where it’s effectiveness and cost will be reviewed.

The news of the grant has been part of a good summer for solar, a heatwave with record levels of sun, the start of the residential grant. As well as this was the favourable terms of the RESS announcement.

This week’s blog looks at the likely impact of the new grants and what it might mean for the solar industry here. Will it be the start of a bright few years for the solar industry in Ireland? Or does the grant stop short of enacting real change?

Related thinking

Low carbon generation

Q4 2023 All-Island Power Market Outlook to 2030 overview

This report provides an annual overview of trends for the All-Ireland Power Market out to 2030 using outputs from Cornwall Insight’s latest forward curve for the All-Island (AI) Single Electricity Market (SEM) covering Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. This publication is based on comprehensive market and asset-level power...

Announcement

What are Australia’s emissions reduction targets?

From Cornwall Insight Australia's Energy Market Alerts service Energy laws have now been amended to incorporate an emissions reduction objective alongside the other objectives. The list of targets that the market bodies will need to consider is listed in a separately published Targets Statement. The targets currently listed cover both...

Announcement

Energy prices tumble in October

From Cornwall Insight Australia’s NEM Market Analysis report With over 700 GWh of rooftop PV added to the NEM since October last year, records were again set in NEM minimum demands along with a high instantaneous renewable penetration within the grid of 71.4%. Once again, the month’s main story was...

Low carbon generation

Understanding the evolution of the Irish electricity markets

The Irish electricity sector has undergone significant change in recent years. The Integrated Single Electricity Market (I-SEM) arrangements introduced in 2018 fundamentally transformed the market framework to maximise competition, facilitate electricity wholesale trading, and incentivise the development of low-carbon generation sources. In parallel the physical system continues to evolve rapidly....

Low carbon generation

Government publishes Ireland’s Climate Action Plan 2023

This article is an extract from our Energy Spectrum Ireland service, which is a monthly publication and weekly news bulletin covering key developments in the Irish and Northern Irish energy sectors. If you are interested, we are currently offering a free trial which you can sign up to by filling...

Commercial and market outlook

Delays to onshore wind investment increase long-term power prices in Ireland

Note: Cornwall Insight Ireland release the 'All-Island Power Market Outlook 2023' on a quarterly basis. The increase in long-term power prices refers to the comparison with our Q3 Power Market Outlook released in October 2022. Data from our fourth - ‘All-Island Power Market Outlook to 2030’ – has forecast that...

Low carbon generation

Benefits of household rooftop solar – a personal point of view

This blog is the first in an irregular series from the Cornwall Insight team on their experiences of installing or owning various energy assets. In 2018 I finally acted on the desire to install my own generation at home, largely prompted by the looming closure of the Feed in Tariff...

Low carbon generation

Head to Head: CfD vs RESS

2022 has been busy for renewable developers in Great Britain and Ireland, with both the fourth allocation round of the Contracts for Difference (CfD) scheme and the second round of the Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS) concluding this summer. We compared the latest results of the CfD and RESS schemes...