Results 1,661-1,680 of 4,012 for speaker:Jennifer Whitmore

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Retrofitting Schemes: Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (11 Oct 2022)

Jennifer Whitmore: I absolutely agree with Deputy Bruton and the approach he has taken. In a time of emergency, where resources are limited and there are constraints around the availability of construction workers to do this work, the focus must be on those homes where people are at risk of, or are already in, energy poverty and where the upgrades can be done quickly and efficiently. That is one of the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Retrofitting Schemes: Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (11 Oct 2022)

Jennifer Whitmore: How long is the waiting list? At one stage it was-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Retrofitting Schemes: Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (11 Oct 2022)

Jennifer Whitmore: These are very much the homes where we are looking at attic insulation and so on. They are not the major retrofits. These should be the easiest and quickest homes to do.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Retrofitting Schemes: Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (11 Oct 2022)

Jennifer Whitmore: On another issue, a low-cost loan scheme was announced in February. When will that be made available? My understanding is the scheme would be worth €8 billion. According to the statistics provided in the opening statement, 36,000 applications have been made to the one-stop shop. How many of those are actually in progress and how many are waiting for information on a loan? I would...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Retrofitting Schemes: Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (11 Oct 2022)

Jennifer Whitmore: If I was doing a retrofit and I knew there were going to be low-cost loans coming out, I would not progress with it until I knew how much that loan was and whether I was going to be eligible for it. How can people progress through the one-stop shop in the absence of that loan?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Retrofitting Schemes: Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (11 Oct 2022)

Jennifer Whitmore: What percentage of people are waiting for information on the loan?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Retrofitting Schemes: Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (11 Oct 2022)

Jennifer Whitmore: Does Dr. Byrne have no oversight of who is coming in to the one-stop shops, how long they are on waiting lists, what they are looking for, or any of that information?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Retrofitting Schemes: Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (11 Oct 2022)

Jennifer Whitmore: On the one-stop shops, how many people have applied and how many homes have started? How many have people working on them?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Retrofitting Schemes: Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (11 Oct 2022)

Jennifer Whitmore: And how many have applied?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Retrofitting Schemes: Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (11 Oct 2022)

Jennifer Whitmore: I note the figure of 637. I have a comment to make on the district heating scheme. Dr. Byrne spoke about the importance of data centres and how they could play a large part in the scheme. Data centres will account for 30% of our electricity use by 2030 so they are a major part of the jigsaw. I found it really interesting in his district heating report that Dr. Byrne did not know when...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Retrofitting Schemes: Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (11 Oct 2022)

Jennifer Whitmore: You are going to need to know where that energy use is.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Retrofitting Schemes: Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (11 Oct 2022)

Jennifer Whitmore: There are a couple of issues I want to cove, the first of which is the scheme for solar installation for medically vulnerable users that was set up under the national energy security framework. That scheme was due to be in place by the second quarter but I am not sure if it is up and running yet. I do not think it is. Can the SEAI indicate when it will be up and running? Will batteries...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Retrofitting Schemes: Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (11 Oct 2022)

Jennifer Whitmore: This question probably follows on from that. It is about the level of resources that the SEAI has and the new programmes that are being put in place. There was an announcement just before the budget in respect of Solar Schools. It was thought that all schools - primary and secondary - would get free solar panels. I had assumed that these would be rolled out through the SEAI because it...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Retrofitting Schemes: Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (11 Oct 2022)

Jennifer Whitmore: Has there been any discussion between the SEAI and the Department in respect of this programme?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Retrofitting Schemes: Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (11 Oct 2022)

Jennifer Whitmore: The pathfinder programme has done 41 schools to date. It has been running for a number of years and has done an average of nine schools per year, so putting solar panels on every single school in the country seems very ambitious. I presume the SEAI would need additional resources to run a major programme like that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Retrofitting Schemes: Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (11 Oct 2022)

Jennifer Whitmore: If we are looking at outputs and outcomes in the context of energy use, as I said earlier there is quite a strong focus on retrofitting, but it is a lot more costly, more invasive and much slower than solar. One could install solar on a roof in a matter of one or two days and that can reduce energy use by up to 40%. In parallel, one could do a retrofit which could take months, cost an...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Retrofitting Schemes: Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (11 Oct 2022)

Jennifer Whitmore: There is a huge disparity there. We seem to be putting a lot of investment into the slower and more resource-heavy end of things, rather than in solar which would give us a quicker win.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Retrofitting Schemes: Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (11 Oct 2022)

Jennifer Whitmore: Can I just say something on that? I do not know whether my thinking is correct here but if one is generating one's own electricity and one's own energy through solar, even if one is wasting some of it because one's home has a B or C BER, from an emissions perspective that does not matter. One is generating one's own electricity while not adding to our carbon emissions. In that context, is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Retrofitting Schemes: Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (11 Oct 2022)

Jennifer Whitmore: The issue is speed. Solar is not perfect, and people would also need to do retrofitting. If, however, we are trying to help people this winter and next, the quickest way to do that is through pushing the solar option, particularly for those who cannot afford it. I refer to people who would be eligible for the warmer homes scheme. That scheme does not include solar which is a missed...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Retrofitting Schemes: Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (11 Oct 2022)

Jennifer Whitmore: I want to get down to the numbers and talk about the B2 and the target of 500,000 by 2030. The last time the authority was in I asked for a projection on the numbers, and I think Deputy O'Rourke did too, of how many B2s the authority expects to have installed by 2030. The question is whether that target will be met. I have not seen that projection, though the authority may have sent it and...