Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted the Minister for Education, Deputy Foley, is here to answer this question regarding solar panels for schools. Last October, we announced in the budget that we would roll out solar panels on schools for free. It is a very sensible suggestion. It can power the lighting and the interactive white boards in the schools. The increase in the number of school meals we rolled out can be heated. I am delighted we were able to introduce it in last year's budget.

We know solar works very well in Ireland and there have been incredible advances in the roll out of solar in Ireland. As someone who worked as an electrician for 30 years, I was delighted to see the transition we are making to 80% of our electricity being generated from renewable sources. Solar will play a massive part in that. As a Government, we have made some advances and it is important to acknowledge that. We have changed the regulations and planning exemptions have been introduced, so we no longer need planning permission for the installation of solar panels on commercial, domestic and farm buildings.

We introduced a really ambitious grant scheme through the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI, which supports people who wish to put solar panels on their roofs at a domestic level. We also introduced a feed-in tariff, so people can be paid for the excess electricity they generate from their roof tops which they do not use at source. Any extra is paid back to the customer.

We have put all of that in place and it has set the framework and groundwork for a solar rooftop revolution. For every kilowatt of electricity we generate in solar, it is 1 kW that does not have to be generated by gas, oil or coal. It helps with the transition to a decarbonised society. Thousands of jobs are being created. I know people who have started to work in the industry and who are fitting solar panels. They are out the door with work. I hope they will be out the work with work for the next 30 years as we roll this out across the country.

There have been massive advances and improvements in the technology in solar. A solar panel has become so much cheaper. The efficiency of solar panels has improved, so they generate a lot more power than the old ones did. The payback time has improved significantly. I always refer back to the report by MaREI, the research centre for energy, climate, and marine in Cork. It talked about the payback time in a domestic setting, which is approximately seven years if 2.5 kW of generation power is put on the roof of a house. We can go up to 6 kW on a domestic scale but that depends on the electricity used during the day. We are working on a utility scale. The first grid-connected solar farm was put into Ashford in County Wicklow and powered up last year. It is a win-win for the farmer who can still graze the land. He gets rent from the solar company which fitted the solar panels and the solar company gets its tariff when it feeds into the grid. Our climate action plan sets a really ambitious target of 8 GW of solar power by 2030.

That brings us to schools. It makes complete sense to do this. When I visit schools, they are so engaged in climate action and want to know about energy, electricity, climate, biodiversity and son on. However, I am not sure what to tell them regarding to the free solar panels for their rooftops, so I hope the Minister can enlighten me on that.

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