2022 sees the long-awaited rollout of feed-in tariffs in Ireland. At long last, homes with solar panels will get paid for the excess electricity they send back to the grid. This seismic change in the solar panel industry has been touted as a game changer. We have been looking into the numbers to see if the claims stack up.
Ireland FIT
The Black Lough, Three Trees and Enros wind farms are some of the last Irish projects to be supported via the Renewable Energy Feed-in Tariff (REFIT) 2 Scheme, and in order to qualify had to meet tight construction deadlines.
A radical climate action plan by the Irish Government, published earlier this month, includes commitments to create a mechanism for solar micro-generators to sell electricity back to the grid. This is long overdue in Ireland could create a huge increase in the proportion of photovoltaic power generated in the country.
The Irish Government announced approval towards the end of July for its long-awaited Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS) and intends to deliver the first RESS auction sometime in 2019.
In the course of 2017, Ireland intends to initiate the energy reform with a new feed-in tariff for renewable energies.
Regulations implemented earlier this year retroactively cutting tariffs under the Northern Ireland Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) could create a legal precedent to reduce agreed support in schemes across the wider renewables sector.
Farmers could benefit from using solar PV energy, but are slow to invest further without clarity on feed-in tariffs and the Government’s grid connection policy, the IFA says.
A key driver in the growth so far was the introduction in 2012 of a renewable energy feed-in-tariff (REFIT 3) by the Government for biomass CHP and anaerobic digestion to help meet the national renewable electricity targets by 2020.
Small Wind Included
Announces change in the type of support mechanism to develop renewable energy technologies