Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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78. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if he will increase the grant support for lower income households to aid the installation of solar PV; the target number of homes for solar PV installation in the years 2023 to 2025, inclusive, to help meet the recently announced increased target of 5 GW of installed solar power capacity by 2025; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [62754/22]

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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I ask the Minister if he will increase the grant support for lower income households to aid the installation of solar photovoltaic, PV, and the target number of homes for solar PV installation in the years 2023 to 2025, inclusive, to help meet the recently announced increased target of 5 GW of installed solar power capacity by 2025.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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Solar PV panels are installed under a number of circumstances. For domestic installations, solar PV is installed on new homes, as one of the measures to achieve compliance with Part L of the building regulations. They are also installed on existing buildings through grant supports offered by Government, through the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI.

The microgeneration support scheme approved by the Government last December set a target of supporting more than 380 MW of new microgeneration capacity. This amounts to more than 60,000 homes and 9,000 non-domestic installations, including small businesses, schools and community groups. With the success of the scheme to date these targets are expected to be increased under the forthcoming climate action plan in 2023.

Since the introduction of the microgeneration support scheme domestic solar PV grant earlier this year, the SEAI has seen application levels increase significantly month on month. It is expected that applications will exceed 15,000 by year end, with more than 8,500 supported. To put this in context, the SEAI supported 4,000 applications for solar PV last year under the previous iteration of the scheme. It has more than doubled in one year.

For 2023, the SEAI is expecting to support more than 12,500 homes and more than 1,000 small businesses and community organisations. While the overall level of interest in the grant schemes indicates that the microgeneration support scheme is working well, its operation and effectiveness will be kept under review and adjustments made where necessary.

A new solar PV scheme for vulnerable customers registered as being dependent on electrically powered assistive devices is also being finalised with stakeholders by the SEAI which will operate the scheme. This €20 million scheme is targeted to provide direct support to more than 3,000 vulnerable customers who may have limited opportunity to reduce their demand. The scheme will provide customers with a 2 KW solar PV system with a hot water diverter in order to meet some of their electricity and hot water requirements.

The increased target of 5 GW of installed solar power capacity will be addressed through a combination of increased microgeneration, small scale generation and renewable electricity support scheme connections in the coming years.

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Minister. We can all agree there is great potential and appetite for solar power, particularly for residences, businesses and farm buildings. There is a barrier at residential level and we can see it in the design of the scheme. From the large number of applications we can see there is demand. I believe the demand goes beyond the scheme, and it needs to do so to reach 5 GW. Cost is a significant barrier for people. Sinn Féin has proposed tiered support. At present the upper level of support is €2,400. A decent system could cost in the region of €8,000. Is the Minister looking at increasing financial supports, tailored financial supports or tiered financial support to expand the audience for residential solar power?

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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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.

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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I ask the Minister to have a clear line of sight on who applies for the grants and who is getting the work done. We have seen in other schemes where many of the 500,000 B2 rated premises are the relatively warm homes of relatively wealthy people who can afford solar. They get solar PV installed, it takes the building up to a B2 rating and one of the 500,000 target premises is met. We need to look at those who are living in energy poverty or at risk of energy poverty and ask how many of them are getting solar PV. If aggregation is the solution well and good. Will the Minister keep a clear eye on where the works are being done?

The Minister mentioned private wires as a key enabler. This is something on which there is agreement across the political spectrum. Like a number of things, it seems to be taking far longer than it should. When will legislation or regulation be introduced to address this?

Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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I want to raise a similar issue regarding energy security in homes. It is reported the Minister recently said he would seek to ban oil burners in 2025. I am not aware of this being in the programme for Government but I am aware of a concerted effort by that industry to encourage the conversion of oil burners to accommodate hydrotreated vegetable oil, HVO. This is a transition fuel that has the impact of reducing emissions by 85% over a ten-year period. It would be advisable and I encourage the Government to look favourably on this commitment as a means by which homes can transition and retrofit at a scale that is not akin to the €40,000, €50,000 or €60,000 that many cannot afford. These are certain stages of improvement that need to be considered, allowed and catered for. I encourage the Government not to put any barrier in front of such a proposal.

Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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Deputy O'Rourke has mentioned families living in energy poverty. I have tabled another question, Question No. 96, on this issue. Families are living in caravans as permanent residents. On the coldest nights of the year, they cannot benefit from the €200 electricity payment. I have asked the Minister to look at this. Perhaps he can answer the question now. It is unacceptable that the poorest people in the coldest dwellings or in caravans cannot benefit from the payment. It is unacceptable on these appallingly cold nights. I dread what might happen to some of the older vulnerable people among them.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The Department is working on the matter Deputy O'Dowd has raised but I do not have the details with me. I will come back to him.

To respond to Deputy Cowen, it was interesting to meet some solid fuel supply companies yesterday and hear them state they are interested in developing low carbon alternatives for use in solid fuel heating systems. They see this as a big opportunity to develop a new market. There is an issue with regard to HVO because it will be in a lot of demand. It is a waste product that has real value. I am sure the Deputy Cowen would be the first to agree the aviation sector, which is of critical economic importance to the State, has its eye on it as a sustainable aviation fuel, as does the land transport industry in which it is used to increase the blend of low carbon fuels. Transport is probably the most difficult sector. There is no alternative for truckers in haulage vehicles. There are no easy alternatives. We need some of the material for this sector rather than for domestic heating for which we can turn to other alternatives.

To respond to Deputy O'Rourke, we will have to do a variety of things differently. For years we have not allowed people to sell back power to the grid and now we are. For years we had planning restrictions for solar power. This has also changed. For 20 years I have heard arguments here and in meetings as to why we could not have private wires. We need to start to do this now because this is the scale of the change we need to make. It is not only private wires for industry. It is also looking at hybrid interconnections where there might be a wind farm with a good grid connection. Could we use solar power in the surrounding area or nearby area to make best use of it? Wind and solar power often complement each other. On a cold day, such as today, when there is no wind, we would get quite good solar output even at a dark time of the year.

We are going to have to do so much. It might just be a line in the climate plan that people think does not say much, but there are several key lines in the plan that have real legal strength behind them now. We are changing direction in a variety of ways in this regard and the solar revolution will be central to this.