Ireland’s solar market has had a big year. Installed capacity passed 3 GW in August, just over a decade after the country had almost no solar at all, and grid-scale output hit new records over the summer. The government is still aiming for 8 GW by 2030, and with household energy bills under pressure from this year’s price spikes, it has put homes at the centre of its energy spending. Most of the measures below have applied since 6 October. Some were approved by the cabinet on 30 September, a week before the budget itself, but the government counts them as part of the same package.
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By way of contrast, Germany, Europe’s largest solar market with more than 128 GW installed, plans to end feed-in tariffs for new small solar systems from next year and shift its support towards large ground-mounted plants. That makes Ireland the more generous of the two for households going solar, though its market is still a fraction of the size.
At a glance
Total for climate, energy and environment: €1.28 billion
Energy transition programme: more than €950 million
SEAI home and community upgrades: around €655 million, a record
New home battery grant: €600
Solar and batteries for lower-income homes: up to €9,000
Tax-free export income: up from €400 to €600 a year
Boiler scrappage top-up: €2,000
The budget in numbers
The €1.28 billion is the budget for the entire Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment, so it includes climate and environmental programmes as well as energy. Within it, more than €950 million goes to the energy transition programme, while the largest single item is the capital budget for upgrades run by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI). That budget pays for home solar, batteries, insulation and heat pumps, and at around €655 million, it is the largest budget the authority has ever received. Climate action spending outside energy accounts for more than €170 million.
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Home batteries
What’s new: a battery grant of €600, paid on top of the SEAI solar PV grant of up to €1,800. According to energy minister Darragh O’Brien, the battery grant is also open to households whose solar grant has already been approved.
The context: storage has become a normal part of home solar in Ireland. About half of new systems now include a battery, which typically costs more than €4,000, so the grant covers only part of the price. The department estimates that a battery paired with a 4 kW system can save a household up to €900 a year, mainly by storing midday solar power for use in the evening. Battery support had been dropped from the SEAI scheme in earlier years, and the industry had been pressing for its return.
Home solar
What’s new: the main solar PV grant stays as it was, at €700 per kW for the first 2 kW and a smaller amount per kW after that, up to a maximum of €1,800 for a 4 kW system. The government also says it has made the eligibility rules for solar PV and solar thermal more favourable.
How it works: households apply to SEAI and must have their grant approved before any work starts. The system has to be fitted by an SEAI-registered installer, and the home needs a Building Energy Rating (BER) once the work is done. Until now, the grant has only been open to homes built and occupied before 2021, a rule that industry groups have criticised for shutting out younger families in newer homes. The details of the eligibility changes were not yet clear at the time of writing.
Lower-income and vulnerable households
What’s new: solar PV and a battery now come as standard in fully funded upgrades under the Warmer Homes Scheme, which pays the whole cost of energy upgrades for households at risk of energy poverty. Lower-income households on certain social welfare payments can also get up to €9,000 towards solar and storage, and people classed as medically vulnerable get both fully funded.
Who it reaches: the government says the measures are aimed at homeowners and renters on low incomes, including tenants in some social and supported housing schemes.
Limits: funded systems are capped at 5 kWh of storage and 4 kW of PV.
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Selling power to the grid
What’s new: households can now earn up to €600 a year from selling electricity to the grid before paying income tax on it, up from €400.
How it works: Irish households with solar panels are paid by their energy supplier for the power they send to the grid, under the Clean Export Guarantee. Each supplier sets its own rate. Those payments count as income, and the tax-free allowance decides how much of it a household can keep without declaring it for income tax.
Who benefits: for most homes with a typical 3 to 4 kW system, export income already stays below the old limit, so little changes. The higher allowance matters more for households with larger systems, or those that are out during the day and send much of their summer output to the grid. It is a small change, but it removes a tax headache for the homes exporting the most and makes it a little easier to justify fitting more panels.
Heating
What’s new: a €2,000 boiler scrappage top-up for households replacing oil or gas boilers with a heat pump, paid on top of the existing heat pump grant of up to €12,500. That brings the total support to as much as €14,500, against a typical installation cost of around €15,000.
Why now: many rural homes still heat with kerosene, and oil prices have risen sharply this year. The top-up is only paid when a fossil fuel boiler is replaced by a heat pump or other clean heating. It applies immediately and is added automatically for households with a heat pump application already in progress.
Businesses and farms
What’s new: the government has expanded solar support for businesses and claims that some could cut their energy bills by up to €300,000 a year. Farms are a different story. The Micro Renewable Energy Federation (MREF) says farm solar has been hit hard by cuts to the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS), under which 90 percent of applicants in recent rounds were turned down. Before the budget, MREF had asked for higher grants for systems up to 6 kW, an end to the 2021 cut-off for newer homes and the return of battery grants. Of the three, only the battery grant has clearly been delivered.
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How it has landed
Solar Ireland welcomed the battery grant. “We have long called for the reintroduction of support for residential battery storage,” said Ronan Power, its chief executive. The association had gone into the budget asking for faster delivery across rooftop solar, storage and the grid, so the budget meets some of its demands but not all.
EY Ireland’s energy lead, Sean Casey, pointed to the pressure this year’s energy prices have put on homes and businesses. In that context, he said, “the increase in microgeneration for households in Budget 2027 is particularly welcome.” He added that the measures should help both groups invest in solar and, crucially, in battery storage.
The Micro Renewable Energy Federation (MREF) had welcomed early reports of better solar grants for homes, farms and businesses. Its main concern remains farm solar, after cuts to TAMS that saw, in the words of chairperson Ciaran Kells, “90% of applicants being rejected due to budgetary constraints” in recent rounds. MREF wants SEAI grants to fill the gap.
What‘s not in it
Solar Ireland had asked the government to use the budget to speed up delivery across rooftop solar, battery storage and the electricity grid. The household measures cover the first two, but there is no new money for grid upgrades or large-scale storage. That matters because Ireland’s solar growth is starting to test the network. In its annual report this year, Solar Ireland called for more investment in flexibility, battery storage and grid infrastructure to make the most of the solar already connected, and grid operator EirGrid has set itself a target of building at least 500 MW of long-duration storage. The most prominent non-household item in the energy budget is a €200 million capital grant scheme for biomethane, which has no direct link to solar.
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Looking further ahead
Attention will now turn to utility-scale solar. The sixth round of the Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS 6) opens for bids on 29 October, with solar competing in its own pot for the first time. Price will make up 85 percent of each bid’s score, and the rest will come from new criteria under the EU’s Net-Zero Industry Act. Projects that add battery storage can earn extra points, but only if the battery is large enough: a 10 MW solar farm, for example, needs at least 10 MWh of storage. In the last round, solar won around 860 MW of contracts, well ahead of onshore wind. (TF)
