Mr. Conall Bolger:

I thank the Chairman. On behalf of the Irish Solar Energy Association I thank the committee for the invitation to address it on the topic of solar energy and the agriculture industry. I am CEO of ISEA. I am joined by Dr. Reale, head of business development UK and Ireland with Lightsource bp, and Mr. Connolly, commercial director with Activ8 Solar Energies. ISEA was established in 2013. Our mission is to decarbonise Ireland’s electricity sector through supporting the development of solar in this country. We are pleased to address the committee in respect of the tremendous potential of solar for society and the agricultural sector.

The climate action plan aims for renewable electricity delivering 80% of power needs by 2030. Achieving this target will require a strong contribution from solar. As the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communication, Deputy Eamon Ryan, noted recently, the plan’s indicative target of up to 2.5 GW for solar energy should be a base line for our ambitions. Given the right policy landscape, we believe Ireland can deliver 6 GW of solar between now and 2030. That would be enough to meet one fifth of electricity needs.

This year is proving to a be a big one for solar in Ireland. Just last week there was the milestone moment of the Millvale solar farm connecting to the national grid. It is the first solar farm to do so, and further solar projects across the country will connect in the weeks and months ahead. The microgeneration support scheme should come into effect in July and ISEA members report significant interest from individuals, communities, farms and businesses seeking to participate in the energy transition.

As the committee will be aware, to date, the climate conversation on agriculture has been fraught. Solar provides a practical option to aid agriculture in its transition. Making land available for solar developments presents opportunities for farmers to diversify their revenues with minimal impact on the sector. Our estimate of the necessary solar contribution to meet Ireland’s renewable target entails using the equivalent of approximately one fifth of 1% of agricultural land. Buildings, such as sheds, on many farms can host panels and enable farms to move towards energy independence. If one also considers the potential savings to the agrifood sector of farmers generating their own clean power, it suggests an immediate benefit to maximising solar.

We have the resource, land and building stock. We have a sector motivated and interested in participating in solar. Unfortunately, however, there are barriers inhibiting progress. We believe there are three broad areas that require action, namely, support structures, taxation and network access. The support structures require concerted action to maximise the take-up of solar by farmers. In our view, the design of the TAMS II solar grant has been unduly restrictive and that has minimised take-up. The microgeneration support scheme, announced in December 2021, now has a clear plan for homes to access its benefits. However, the timeline for farmers remains unclear and that should be addressed.

A second barrier relates to an agricultural relief under capital acquisitions tax rules that allows farming families to inherit agricultural land without being subjected to potentially unaffordable levels of inheritance tax. Current rules allow farms with solar panels to qualify for the relief so long as the panels do not take up more than half of the total land area. This stipulation is inadvertently preventing farmers from hosting solar panels. Easing the restriction could have an immediate impact for farmers and the solar industry. Solar installation does not prevent the use of the land for agriculturally relevant purposes such as sheep grazing. Depending on the equipment layout, international experience suggests that 55% to 80% of the land under lease could be available for use, and that is before one considers use of the land under panels.

Accessing the network is another area of concern. It can be a lengthy, uncertain and expensive process. Ireland needs to rationalise that process for all users, from an individual farmer seeking to export from his or her rooftop to the utility-scale solar farm. A helpful fix would be to ease the restrictive legislation in respect of so-called direct lines. Direct lines provide direct connections from renewable energy sources such as solar farms to the customers, which are typically large-scale industrial users. Direct lines could provide quicker routes for users to connect to renewable sources of energy. That would allow large energy users such as agrifood facilities to satisfy much of their demand from green sources.

There are further simple actions that could make solar more attractive for everyone in society. These include a reduction in VAT rates on solar panels and other solar equipment, and implementation of planning reforms for rooftop solar photovoltaic, PV.

We believe that Ireland will be a greener country by the end of the decade, providing its citizens and businesses with access to cheaper locally generated electricity. We can meet our objectives, and solar is a necessary part of getting us there. Agriculture will benefit from solar at scale and that requires the active participation of the agricultural sector. I again thank the committee for its time. My colleagues and I are happy to answer members' questions.