The Micro Renewable Energy Federation (MREF) have given a cautious welcome to environment minister, Eamon Ryan’s, announcement of a new support scheme for the micro-generation of renewable power.
Pat Smith, chairman of MREF, said there were major shortcomings in the new scheme that need to be addressed in advance of the scheme’s introduction next year.
In particular, Smith said that the reduction in the level of maximum grants for domestic installations of solar PV from their current level of €3,000 to €900 in 2028 cannot be justified.
This is as the costs of installations are increasingly going in the opposite direction due to price inflation in equipment and wage costs, according to the MREF.
Support for solar projects
Smith has called on Minister Ryan to ensure that the €600 grant for battery storage is retained for home owners who want to optimise their self-consumption of renewable power.
MREF is also urging that planned reductions in grant levels from 2024 are revisited before then and amended to reflect the inflationary pressures on installations at the time.
Pat Smith welcomed the extension of supports to all homes built pre-2021 as a major help to tens of thousands of homes that have been built since 2010, which were previously denied grant support.
The extension of the grant support to non-domestic installations is also encouraging for systems of less than 6kW, according to MREF.
However, the federation has said that this generation level is too restrictive and is significantly less than what is needed by the sector to encourage small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) and farmers to invest and support the country in meeting its climate reduction targets.
Challenges for microgeneration
The MREF said that these new supports are not due to be introduced until later in 2022, and in the meantime it is critical that the Better Energy Communities (BEC) and other grant supports continue to underpin investment in solar PV installations in 2022 and beyond.
The federation also said that there are some technical issues to be resolved including the need for the support to apply to systems below 6.1kW rather than 5.9kW.
Pat Smith said that the proposed graduated clean export premium payment for system sizes between 6kWp and 50kWp is – without grant support – far short of the levels required to encourage businesses and farmers to invest in renewable energy systems to export to the grid.
MREF – dedicated grant needed
The MREF is calling for a dedicated grant for all renewable energy projects to be introduced for larger system installations to underpin the clean energy premium of 13.5c/kWh.
However, this premium payment brings no certainty as it is to be slashed to 9.5c/kWh by 2027 with payments uncertain after that date, according to MREF.
Smith said: “At a minimum the 13.5c/kWh needs to be fixed for 15 years to allow businesses meet repayments from the borrowings required system to invest in the first instance.
“While the government announcement in their press statement [said] that there would be a premium payment of 13.5c/kWh for 15 years, this needs to be clarified and confirmed as the case.”
Smith claims that the new proposals, without grant support, are discriminatory as many solar PV projects will not qualify for the export premium payment of 13.5c/kWh, because they will be denied an export agreement due to grid access restrictions.
In addition, MREF said that there will have to be a grant support opportunity for businesses and farms that opt for non-export of the renewable power they generate, to help them justify the initial capital cost for their system installations.
“These are key issues that need to be urgently addressed if the ambitions for microgeneration – which are shared by MREF – are to be realistically realised,” Smith concluded.