The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) has said that it has invested €121 million of government funds in 2020, as well as €270 million in privately leveraged funds.
According to the SEAI, these investments resulted in €21 million in cost savings and a 93,000t reduction in CO2 emissions.
In its ‘Annual Achievements Statement’, published today (Tuesday, January 26), the authority noted that some 20,700 homes and 240 community and commercial facilities saw upgrades through this funding.
Other projects supported through this funding in 2020 that the SEAI highlighted include:
- 4,842 new electric vehicles and 3,523 home charger installations;
- Over €8 million towards 90 public building retrofits;
- Over €5 million invested in renewable and ocean energy research and development;
- Energy data, modelling and policy analysis;
- Publication of technological advice.
“2020 was an extraordinarily difficult year for society and a challenging year for the economy… We are very proud of the achievements across our programmes, many of which grew,” said William Walsh, the SEAI’s chief executive.
He added: “The response from the business community was particularly encouraging with a fantastic reaction to our new online ‘Energy Academy’. We also maintained our policy analysis and advice supports across government.
Without doubt, our biggest challenge was how the public health restrictions effectively halted momentum in home energy retrofits.
“In response to the substantial budget increase allocated by government to the SEAI, we are gearing up our services to help Ireland accelerate its climate action trajectory. The early focus is on ramping up our capacity as the national retrofit delivery body,” Walsh said.