Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

This is some feat, and we are going beyond it. From a political perspective, there is a huge advantage in favouring rooftop solar for domestic, farming and businesses in order that people have a sense of ownership and engagement with this transition. I would put it another way. This may be at the distribution level so it might not affect the transmission system - the entire system has to be integrated from here on - but would there not be a major advantage in really strengthening the distribution network? If it heeds our report, the Government will commit to a massive ramping up of the retrofitting of housing. The latter would involve a deep retrofit of at least 50,000 houses a year. Such a retrofit must involve the installation of heat pumps and electric vehicle charging points. If we achieve a total of 50,000 homes per year over the next ten years, that would mean the installation of 500,000 heat pumps. With 50 V boxes controlling access at each end house, I understand it is incredibly difficult to manage some of the distribution at street level. Is there not a huge advantage in using the rooftop solution in order to bring many of the solutions back to a local level as opposed to putting such pressure on the transmission grid? If we try to do it all on the transmission system, I do not see it working.