The Green Party has called on a Fine Gael minister of state to urgently progress planning legislation to allow for the installation of more solar panels on farms.
The party welcomed a commitment from Tánaiste Leo Varadkar to increase income streams to farmers through the roll out of the microgeneration scheme.
It has now urged his party colleague and Minister of State with responsibility for Local Government and Planning, Peter Burke to progress planning legislation to enable farmers to benefit.
Last June, Green Party Senator Pauline O’Reilly brought a bill to the Seanad which would mean that planning permission would no longer be needed for larger solar panel installations on a range of buildings, including on farms.
The microgeneration scheme was launched in December by Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications and party leader, Eamon Ryan.
The Greens said that over 21,000 electricity customers have already signed up to sell power from their solar panels back to the national grid from July.
“Planning laws that restrict the use of solar panels on farms and other locations such as schools and community buildings, have all but stopped development and need to be urgently overhauled,” Green Party TD and party spokesperson on planning, Steven Matthews, said.
“At the moment, farmers need to seek planning permission to install even one solar panel and this can take months of paperwork and formalities.
“There are also restrictions on the size and number of panels that can be used, and this means they are too small for the needs of the building,” Matthews, who is also chair of the Oireachtas Planning Committee, added.
The Green Party TD previously indicated that the planning exemptions for solar panels on farms were expected by the end of June.