Ireland's climate and trade ministers will today ask the Cabinet to sign off on generous solar grants for businesses of up to €162,500.
Environment, Climate and Communications Minister, Eamon Ryan and Enterprise, Trade and Employment Minister, Simon Coveney, will bring a memo to the Government on Tuesday.
The aim of the tiered grant scheme, which is understood to range from €2,700 up to €162,500, is to help firms decarbonise.
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If passed, it will hugely enhance the range of supports available for the installation of solar PV and associated smart energy infrastructure for a wide range of commercial and public sector non-residential buildings.
A source said: "It will support PV installations ranging from 7 kWp, suitable to the energy capacity of smaller SMEs or professional businesses like solicitors or dentists, up to 1 MW, which might be more suitable to the energy capacity of larger businesses like a pharmaceutical plant or a large retail outlet.
"The grants will come into effect quickly so that businesses can install solar panels early to offset energy costs.
"The new scheme will be in place until the end of 2025 at least.
"Up to now, grants for solar PV have been capped at 6KWp, or about 16 PV panels, more suited to domestic houses and farms. This means that businesses which may have wanted to install 7KWp, for example, received no grant whatsoever.
"These new generous grants are aimed at really ramping up the rooftop solar revolution which has already started in Ireland. To date nearly 60,000 homes have availed of government grants for solar.
"In addition to saving businesses money on their energy bills, it is expected that the targeted uptake of this new Solar for Business scheme will also help avoid nearly 80 MtCO2 in emissions over the coming two years.
"This new scheme bridges the government’s solar strategy and fits between the existing micro generation scheme and the large scale utility scale renewable energy support scheme."
