Environment Minister Eamon Ryan’s school solar panel plan needs to be a lot more ambitious
LAST week, Environment Minister Eamon Ryan leaked a key plank of his budget plans – he wants to have a “rooftop revolution”.
What does this revolution look like? Every school in the country would have solar panels.
Now, while this is certainly welcome news for schools, there are just 3,277 primary schools and 548 secondary schools in the country. So, perhaps it would be best to downplay talk of revolution.
If that is the extent of the government’s ambition when it comes to solar power then we are in even bigger trouble than I thought.
We currently have a cost-of-energy crisis, that is causing prices to rocket, and a simultaneous energy-security crisis, which means we don’t even know if the lights will stay on this winter.
If Minister Ryan’s “lightbulb moment” in response to these twin threats is confined to installing solar panels in schools, then that will do nothing to address households soaring energy bills.
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This government, and previous governments, have been pathetic on the issue of solar energy. There is no other word to describe it. Even the presence of the Green Party in government has done little to improve standards.
Last year, just 4,078 homes received a grant to install solar panels. In total, it has been estimated that just 20,000 homes around the country have solar panels.
When you consider that there are two million households in the country, you can begin to see how laughable the government’s alleged promotion of solar energy has been.
It is impossible to understand why more effort is not being made to install solar panels in homes.
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They are relatively cheap, quick to install and the benefits from their installation are felt almost immediately.
Household electricity bills can be cut by an average of up to 40 per cent over the course of a year, emissions also plummet and pressure is removed from the grid.
The Social Democrats launched our alternative budget this week and we included what can genuinely be described as a “rooftop revolution” as part of our plans.
We would install solar panels in 100,000 low income homes over two years – a huge increase on the puny number of homes that are currently availing of solar.
Low income households – those most at risk of fuel poverty - cannot afford the cost of installation so this installation would be done free of charge by the State.
By acting on a large scale, the State can save money by buying solar panels in bulk and rolling them out rapidly around the country.
Our determination to ensure households get the benefit of solar does not end there. We would also double the size of the current grant that is available for solar.
DOUBLE THE GRANT
Currently, households can only get €2,400 towards the installation of solar panels – which still leaves a huge amount for hard-pressed individuals and families to scrape together.
We would double the size of that grant – to €4,800 – to try to bridge that gap and ensure that money is less of a barrier for those who are eager to get the benefits of solar energy but cannot afford the up-front costs.
As part of this plan, the number of people trained to install solar panels would also be massively ramped up. Given training can be provided in just a matter of weeks, this should be no obstacle to meeting targets.
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A recent study by UCC found that up to one million Irish homes have roofs that are suitable for solar panels.
The only thing stopping those homes from benefiting from clean, cheap energy is government inaction and lack of ambition.