No selling back of excess electricity for ROI homeowners

The ROI Department of Environment’s pilot grant scheme for generating electricity in the home will not consider allowing homeowners to sell the excess back to the grid, Minister for the Environment Denis Naughten told Selfbuild today (23rd March 2018) at the British Irish Council environment work sector meeting in Dublin.

Minister Naughten told Selfbuild the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland was finalising the options for the pilot scheme and that he expected the report on his desk next month, which coincidentally is the month in which the heat pump grants are to be rolled out. The options, he said, will not include feed-in tariffs but will be looking at providing a grant for homeowners to install the microgeneration unit, e.g. photovoltaic panels, and battery storage as well possible tie-ins with electric vehicle charge points, for which a €600 grant is currently available. No decision has been made as to the exact make up of the scheme but it is still scheduled to be rolled out this summer. During the press conference Minister Naughten highlighted that the cost for battery storage currently stood at around €6,000 but that he was confident that within two to three years this could be reduced by about a third, stating that research in the field was advancing rapidly.  Favourite