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Energy Minister Eamon Ryan today announced a
new Home Energy Saving Scheme - Apr 17, 2008

The Scheme will encourage and incentivise homeowners to improve the energy efficiency of their homes in order to reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions.

With an initial investment of €5 million, this regional pilot is designed to inform the roll-out of the full scale €100 million national scheme envisaged in the Programme for Government. The Scheme will target older housing as these homes are most in need of energy efficiency retrofitting.

It will begin its work with 2,000 homes in a regional pilot in North Tipperary, Limerick, Clare and Dundalk. There will be an additional strand, which will allow for clusters of housing throughout the country.

Householders will avail of a Building Energy Rating (BER) assessor to come to their house, give the home a BER rating and advise on the works that need to be carried out to improve energy efficiency. The homeowner will pre-pay €100 towards the cost of this assessment, with Sustainable Energy Ireland subsidising the balance. Approximately two thirds of the cost of the assessment, will therefore, will be covered by the Government.

The assessor may advise that the house requires such work as attic insulation, interior or exterior wall insulation, low emissions double-glazing, heating control or a range of other energy efficient works. The Government will then cover up to 30% of the cost of these works, to a maximum of €2,500. On completion of the works a follow-up energy assessment on the building will be undertaken so that there is a "before and after" test of what has been done.

The Scheme will be administered by Sustainable Energy Ireland and locally by the Tipperary Energy Agency, the Limerick/Clare Energy Agency and t he SEI team in Dundalk. One of the aims is to get a grouping of houses to have the same work undertaken so that the cost to each individual householder comes down.

Launching the Scheme Minister Ryan said, "Of the 1.7 million homes in Ireland, it is estimated that up to 1 million require some investment to improve their energy efficiency.

This Scheme will support homeowners who wish to invest in their homes to bring them up to modern energy efficiency standards. Such investment has been shown to pay for itself in energy savings in a few short years. This scheme will help Ireland meet our climate change targets at the same time as assisting the householder with energy costs. Householders will save on their electricity and heating bills; they will use their energy more wisely and increase the re-sale value on their homes.

The Scheme will also be welcome news for the house-building sector. ’SEI’ estimate that the householder will save up to €500 in their energy bills every year and that the scheme will save 6,000 tonnes of CO2 in its first year alone. The full €100 million scheme is expected to yield greenhouse gas savings of 175,000 tonnes per year.

The key features of the pilot scheme are:
Supports for the upgrade of energy efficiency measures in existing dwellings, including wall and roof insulation, low emissivity double glazing and heating controls (thermostatic radiator valves, timers etc);
Support linked to house specific Building Energy Ratings and Advisory Reports, and to specific gains in BER performance from investment undertaken;
Delivery of scheme supports via local energy agencies, energy service companies and by Sustainable Energy Ireland;
Supports varying in different pilot areas to allow testing of impacts;
Capital grants where available will be to a maximum of 30% of costs or the upper threshold (whichever is the lower).
Low interest loans (where applicable) will be provided directly by financial institutions.
Information and advice provision will be in the form of a Building Energy Rating Certificate and associated Advisory Report and follow up advice.

As a pilot scheme, various aspects will be evaluated to inform the roll-out of a full scale scheme in 2009, including impacts, effectiveness and value for money of the energy efficiency upgrade measures undertaken, the types of supports employed and the delivery mechanisms utilised. Supports will be available for 3 levels of intervention:
Warm zone - upgrading one or two rooms in a house to improve efficiency and comfort in low occupancy contexts (upper capital grant threshold €1,500);
Whole house - householder undertakes whole-house action to meet a specific BER performance improvement target (upper capital grant threshold €2,500);
and Cluster - group of houses engage service providers collectively in order to achieve performance upgrades and higher value through economies of scale (upper capital grant threshold €2,000);.

The scheme will operate on the basis of 4 test projects, 3 of which will take place in limited geographical areas - North Tipperary, Dundalk and Limerick/Clare (excluding Limerick City).

The 4th test project will operate nationally, but excluding the other test project areas.
Different support measures will be made available in each test project area so that their impact may be assessed.
A specific objective of the scheme will be to support the development of the energy services industry in Ireland. The scheme will be managed locally in the North Tipperary area by Tipperary Energy Agency and in Limerick / Clare by the Limerick Clare Energy Agency. Local management of the scheme in the Dundalk area will be handled by Sustainable Energy Ireland's Dundalk 2020 team.

The 4th national test project will be managed by an energy services company under a contract for services.
In the event that more applications are received than can be accommodated in the pilot project, Sustainable Energy Ireland will shortlist applicants on the basis of quotas and / or random sampling techniques.
Applicants will be required to have their home assessed by a Building Energy Rating assessor and pre-pay a heavily subsidised BER fee of €100 towards the cost of this assessment. Supports will be conditional on completion of energy efficiency improvement works recommended by the assessor in the Advisory report.    For further details please contact WOWenergy.


Irish Government to invest €200 million in Energy R&D
Mar 6, 2008 - 4:51: PM
 
The Taoiseach Bertie Ahern announced today what he termed "a major new initiative", which will see Science Foundation Ireland adding sustainable energy as a third sector which it will now target for investment. He said Energy is a key part of the Government's Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation, which in turn is strongly reflected in sectoral investment under the National Development Plan. The Government will be investing in the order of €200 million in energy related Research and Development over the coming years.
Speaking at a conference on sustainable energy in Dublin, Ahern told the Energy Forum 2008 that "currently 90% of our energy comes from imported fossil fuels. This is an extremely high exposure - the average import figure for other EU countries is closer to 65%. Around 60% of the energy we use comes from imported oil products. We are using 165,000 barrels of oil each day, which is some ten pints of oil for every man, woman and child each and every day of the year."
The Director General of Science Foundation Ireland, Prof. Frank Gannon today welcomed the decision announced by the Government at the Energy Summit to extend the remit of SFI to include the broad thematic area of sustainable energy and energy efficient technologies.

 
Emerald Isle to go green: Irish PM  -  6th March 2008
 
DUBLIN (AFP) — The Irish government unveiled a series of multi-million euro (pound, dollar) policy initiatives Thursday as part of a plan to make the Emerald Isle a more environmentally sustainable economy.
"We are uniquely placed to secure our economic future by marking ourselves out as a centre of the global green energy boom. This is the decision we have taken as government," Prime Minister Bertie Ahern said. Speaking at a sustainable energy conference and flanked by seven ministers who each announced a range of plans, Ahern said new, cleaner energy provided job creation and inward investment opportunities for the Irish economy.
Plans include a 200-million-euro (304-million-dollar) energy-related research programme, encouragement for farmers to grow energy crops and greater use of biofuels for a national sustainable travel and transport system. "We want to take a direct, interactive approach to inform future government actions so that Ireland becomes a leading low carbon economy," said Ahern, whose ruling three-party coalition includes three Green Party ministers.
"Our incentive to tackle the climate change challenge is all the greater because the actions we need to take will also protect our economy from future oil and gas supply shocks." Action is needed because currently 90 percent of Ireland's energy comes from imported fossil fuels compared to an average import figure of 65 percent for other European Union countries. Ireland has no nuclear power and about 60 percent of energy comes from imported oil.
"We are using 165,000 barrels of oil each day, which is some 10 pints of oil for every man, woman and child each and every day of the year," Ahern said.
"We have to prepare now for a future when conventional oil supplies start to contract rather than continue to expand."
Just as Ireland enjoyed a boom in the 1990s by opening up its economy, now it had to make a fresh change to a low carbon economy, he added.