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

From speaking to solar PV installers there are two real obstacles to the further massive expansion we need to see. The first is the workforce. The people installing it say there is not a shortage of demand but a shortage of skilled workers. These workers will come. I mentioned the apprenticeships the Minister, Deputy Harris, is delivering at scale. These will start to address this. This is the first big constraint. Installing solar PV is difficult to do as every house is slightly different and we need to see whether it has the right system, whether it is working and whether the right equipment is in the house. The second obstacle is that for scaling up we need aggregation, whereby 50 or 100 houses would be done at a time. There are people doing this. Recently I was in Lahinch in County Clare where voluntary local community groups are aggregating the delivery. This is the best way to reduce the cost. It needs further work from the SEAI and others so it becomes a community issue and an entire road is done at the same time. This, more than increasing the grant, would be the way to reduce the price and get as many houses as possible done. Aggregation and the workforce are the two issues we need to develop.

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