Radical overhaul is needed of grants for retrofitting private households, including greater supports for older people wishing to change to clean energy to heat their homes, Government officials have recommended.
In briefing documents submitted to Minister for Energy Darragh O’Brien, they set out the case of ramping up actions to deliver more homes with an energy rating of B2 while focusing on lower-income households.
This includes revising and improving “the provision of grants and financing mechanisms for homeowners who wish to retrofit, enhance energy efficiency and reduce costs”. This should also “ensure all grants and schemes are accessible to older people”, they advised.
The case is set out in the context of poor progress in decarbonising the built environment sector which accounted for 11.1 per cent of Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2023 – reducing by just 0.3 per cent on 2022.
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The document encompasses policy across the residential, commercial, industrial and public sectors, “with a focus on retrofitting, the roll-out of heat pumps, biomethane [a green gas], and developing a district heating sector”.
One document shows 62,892 dwellings have been retrofitted to Ber B2 energy rating with a 2025 target of 120,000 houses, while there is a “gap to 2030 target” of 437,108 dwellings. Despite the large shortfall on delivering retrofits, Ireland is performing better than most EU states in decarbonising buildings.
Similar shortfalls are outlined on delivery of installed district heat capacity; dwellings using heat pumps and biomethane production from anaerobic digesters.
The document, which was also provided to the Government formation talks in January, endorses better supports of group retrofitting projects, “allowing neighbours to upgrade their homes together, making the process easier and more economical” – backed by innovative finance solutions. In addition, the officials call for an increase in “sustainable energy communities” where clean energy solutions are deployed.
Officials backed expansion of pilot schemes where private homes in social housing estates can opt into retrofitting projects; enhancing awareness of new low-interest loans for home upgrades and targeting older homes still using oil to switch to renewable heating systems.
They also called for examination of possible mechanisms to better incentivise households in adopting clean energy sources.
The programme for government adopted significant measures to reform the approach to retrofitting but the documents show Ireland is “very much behind the curve” versus its European counterparts on the “renewable heat obligation” (RHO) tied into phasing out fossil fuels.
This includes embracing district heating systems in urban areas – where excess heat from industrial plants, waste-to-energy facilities and data centres is used to heat homes and to provide hot water.
Officials from the Department of the Environment and Climate recommended use of the biofuel hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) for home heating but warned this requires “careful consideration and messaging in the context of the RHO” – as it could impact on the retrofit programme and potentially limit decarbonisation options for the transport sector.
On the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, which oversees retrofitting, they said its mandate is increasingly expanding, driven by increasing emphasis on sustainability and climate action. This meant “risk of overextending its resources also grows, potentially affecting service quality”.
“Effective planned prioritisation and strategic scaling [is] required into the future, with appropriate cross-departmental governance structures at the core,” they said.
