Will govt grants for solar panels etc increase soon?

Bellie1

Was going to get solar panels next year ,but wondering if the government have plans to massively increase grants in the coming years and if should hold off? Heard mention of target of 500,000 houses being retrofitted by 2030, is that from taxpayer money/govt funded or is alot from expectation that private households will pony up?

graememk

I don't see the grants increasing.

Maybe extended to houses built after 2011. Maybe it will be a premium feed in tariff.

Its always been rumoured that the grants will go if the premium tariff comes in.

Nothing has been announced, only an announcement that there will be an announcement soon....™

And that's only for the basic feed in tariff.

Bellie1

Am glad of that, no reason to delay. I want to do for environment but the mean part of me was thinking, hmmm save a few grand by holding tough etc. Can someone pm me a few decent companies in the Cork city area

slave1

if there’s a change there won’t be prior notice. Logically the sensible adjustment is to remove the battery grand when FIT comes in…

Bellie1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118120347#Comment_118120347

What's FIT?

bullit_dodger

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118122086#Comment_118122086

FIT = Feed-in-tariff (whereby essentially residential people with solar panels get paid for giving their excess energy to the grid, probably to the tune of 3-4cents per unit)

Bellie1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118122137#Comment_118122137

Cheers

namloc1980

It'll be more along the lines of low cost loans as per the plan yesterday. They said they provide low cost loans for retrofitting which works include panels you'd imagine. Can't see too many people jumping at the chance of becoming indebted to have solar panels on their roof.

PilotHole

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118122191#Comment_118122191

SAAS seems very popular and that is a ten year loan .

slave1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118122191#Comment_118122191

Plenty of suppliers have already taken this step and have pre-arranged agreements ready to sign with banks

yankinlk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118122191#Comment_118122191

i first looked at the costs of a new solar install versus my existing leccy bill. I did the math and worked out I could get a small loan for a very short period (3 years) and the bill would roughly match my electric bill. I made the assumption that as prices go up anyway - i will lock in a bit of a discount (with generation, habit changes and use of night rate battery)

WHen its paid back - i should enjoy a good many years of much reduced electric bill. I hope the grant continues or at least some sort of enhanced scheme get others on to the solar scehme.

SD_DRACULA

Wouldn't factor in night rate for much longer, looks like everyone will be forced to smart meters eventually...

markpb

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118127401#Comment_118127401

Smart meters are still in their infancy in Ireland, it’s entirely possible that new tariffs will appear in the market and some of those might be closer to the day/night meters we have today. Electricity is cheaper and cleaner to produce at night (lower demand so less need for dirty and expensive gas burning generators) so it makes sense to encourage people to use more night time electricity and less peak/day time electricity.

The opposite is also true, I suspect we’re likely to see higher prices for morning and evening peak electricity usage.

slave1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118127401#Comment_118127401

They can't be forced upon us, as long as your current meter is operational you simply refuse, I've posted many times that this has been covered by Ministerial Q&A

idc

Yeah they might just start increasing price of old meters. So smart meter plans get cheaper while old meter plans increase. They'll claim its the cost to do manual meter checks!!