Free solar panels and higher grants under new plan to reduce energy costs
Social welfare recipients could save up to €900 in energy costs a year as the Government examines the “immediate rollout” of solar panels under the warmer home scheme and higher retrofitting grants.
The Irish Examiner is reporting that ministers will soon examine a menu of options to support households and businesses with energy costs through enhanced retrofitting programmes.
Other proposed measures include higher grants for solar panels for people in receipt of certain social welfare payments, along with grants for landlords providing HAP payments and rental accommodation scheme.
The reports that a menu of options for enhanced retrofitting measures for both homes and businesses will be brought to Cabinet by energy minister Darragh O’Brien in the coming weeks. The scheme would be administered by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI).
This includes proposals to provide solar panels as standard under the Warm Home Scheme. This is a scheme run by the SEAI, which provides free energy upgrades to homeowners in receipt of certain social welfare payments.
This includes the fuel allowance, the working family payment, jobseeker’s allowance, disability allowance, domiciliary care allowance, one-parent family payment, and carer’s allowance.
Another proposed measure would see grants of up to €9,000 for solar panels and battery energy storage systems for households in receipt of certain social welfare payments.
It is estimated that these measures could result in savings of up to €878 per year for households which are deemed suitable for the solar panels.
It is also proposed that a new pilot scheme could be introduced for landlords providing HAP and rental accommodation scheme tenancies. A HAP tenancy involves a local authority paying rent directly to the landlord, with the tenant paying a contribution to the council. The rental accommodation scheme operates in the same way, but the council helps the tenant secure the tenancy.
