Denying farmers the ability to export surplus solar generated energy to the national grid and receive a payment for it is unfair and impractical, according to chair of the Micro Renewable Energy Federation (MREF), Pat Smith.
Speaking on the latest episode of Farmland (Tuesday, March 29), Smith said that farmers who receive a grant under the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Schemes (TAMS) to install solar panels, will not be allowed to export their surplus electricity to the grid and receive payment for it.
The introduction of this rule would lock farmers using TAMS-supported panels out of the Micro-generation Support Scheme (MSS), which sees microgenerators of solar electricity receive a payment for exporting their excess energy.
Smith said this is impractical and is calling for clarity on the issue:
“I certainly had some discussions with the department of agriculture, and I think I’ve highlighted the impracticality of what they’re proposing and the fact that it’s not going to be policeable.”
The MSS was launched in December 2021 by the Minister for Environment, Climate and Communications, Eamon Ryan. Speaking at the time, the minister said:
“The government is developing a framework of supports – to enable homes, businesses, farms and communities to install renewable generation for their own consumption and receive a payment for any residual electricity they export to the grid.”
However, the decision by TAMS would be at odds with this statement, as well as the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI).
The SEAI also provides grants to farmers for the installation of solar panels and allows the owners of these panels to export the excess energy generated to the grid and receive payment for doing so.
Smith said he hopes the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) will reverse the decision and allow farmers to receive a payment in some form.
“I’m hoping that whatever grants are available, that come forward, that the farmer will be able to export to the grid,” he told the Farmland programme.
“They may not get a premium payment for exporting to the grid, but they should be allowed to get a market related payment which is not subsidised,” he concluded.
Restrictions
The MREF chairman also believes the restrictions around the installation of panels on properties need to be removed if Ireland wants to meet the demand for solar energy.
He said that removing the barriers to installing these solar photovoltaic (PV) systems is just as important as providing funding to cover the costs of doing so:
“What the government needs to do more than anything else is to make it easily accessible and get rid of some of the restrictions, so that farmers can optimise solar PV for the use of energy on their own farm but also for export to the grid.”
Planning regulations are a significant challenge facing those who wish to operate a solar PV system. A draft bill on planning exemptions for solar panels is due to open for a period of public consultation in the coming weeks.
Under the proposed bill, there would be no need to seek planning permission for a wide range of solar panel developments on agricultural structures or within the curtilage of an agricultural holding. This would also mean no planning permission fees would apply.
Smith said that this bill has been a long time coming and that it is “high time” the government is doing something about it.
“Planning exclusions are slow; it’s been very disappointing that it’s taken three years of intensive lobbying that we’re now at the point of a public consultation. I think the government have questions to answer in that fact.”
Grants
Smith also believes that the current supports are not attractive enough to farmers and must be improved to incentivise more people to develop solar PV systems.
“I would be encouraging the government to increase the grants, particularly to the farming community,” he said.
Smith also said that these grants should come from a separate ‘wallet of money’ to the funding available through TAMS which can offer grants of 40% and 60% to farmers who wish to install solar PV.
However, these grants are not available to farmers who have used up their allocation of TAMS funding in the past on various other projects, which Smith would like to see overturned.
Watch the latest episode of Farmland by clicking here.