The Minister for Communications, Climate Action & Environment Denis Naughten has today announced a new multi-annual scheme to provide financial support to people who want to upgrade their homes to an ‘A’ rating on the Building Energy Rating (BER) scale.
The allocation of €5 million to the scheme this year will fund major energy efficiency upgrades to homes and low carbon heating systems. It will be administered by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI). The scheme will meet up to half the cost of upgrades for individual householders.
Launching the 2017 SEAI Energy Show in the RDS today Minister Naughten said:
“I have secured €5m in grant funding that will be ring-fenced for people who want to bring their home up to an A on the Building Energy Rating scale. To support Ireland’s transition from fossil fuels to renewable heating technologies there will be no grants for fossil fuel based systems under this scheme. Deep retrofit is a significant upgrade to bring a home as close as possible to Nearly Zero Energy Building standards. People live in a wide variety of homes across a broad swath of locations and they live in very different circumstances be they homeowners or renters. We need to develop a range of solutions that will work for everyone. Achieving the transition to a low carbon energy system in our existing housing stock is not just an Irish challenge, it is a global one. But we need to develop, from the bottom up, a range of solutions to create the evidence base for what really works in Ireland. Critical as it is to reduce carbon emissions from our residential sector, it is as important to reap the additional benefits that come with making a home low carbon, such as lower energy bills and improved health and comfort.
The €5m scheme will be administered by SEAI and will make funds available on a rolling basis to community groups, to Local Authorities and to Energy Agencies. It is available to any group that can pull together groups of people who want to invest in a major energy efficiency improvement to their home. Under the scheme an individual homeowner will be able to get up to half the cost of their energy efficiency upgrade supported by the SEAI.
As Ireland becomes increasingly connected in the information age, where smarter homes fuelled cleanly and efficiently, we can bridge the gap between global challenge and national responsibility.”
Details of the scheme are now available on the SEAI website: http://www.seai.ie/Grants/Deep-Retrofit-Programme/