Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy will be absolutely delighted because this is a big priority for the Government. He will warmly welcome how the Government is delivering on this and many other issues. Solar has considerable potential. We want to back farm families in developing it, availing of it and benefiting from it.

To encourage on-farm renewable technology uptake and usage, grant aid is provided through grants made available by my Department under the targeted agricultural modernisation schemes, TAMS. Grants are currently available for solar photovoltaic, PV, technology and solar PV rechargeable batteries, and also solar panels, or solar thermal, for water heating under the pig and poultry capital investment scheme. An on-farm solar PV survey must be completed and submitted to avail of a grant.

I was delighted recently to announce, as part of the budget, that the electricity consumption of a dwelling house can now be included, with immediate effect, on the solar survey as part of the holding for sizing the solar PV installation. The dwelling house must be occupied by the herd owner or family member and situated on the holding. The scheme is now open for applications.

The maximum panel size eligible for grant aid under the pig and poultry scheme is 62 kW, and it is 11 kW under other eligible TAMS II schemes. To encourage further uptake, I am proposing further changes to the scheme. I will be increasing the number of kilowatts for solar applications under TAMS III to 30 kW from 11 kW. This is a very significant increase that will bring in more energy-intensive farms and cover their electricity usage through on-farm generation.

See this speech in context