Ireland

The Irish government wants to introduce an unspecified renewable energy quota for the heating sector by 2024. The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) recently predicted that heat pumps could cover 20% of the country’s heating demand in 2030.

Allied Irish Banks will buy electricity from two solar parks that NTR is now developing. The power purchase agreement has a duration of 15 years.

Ireland’s new solar measures, first announced in June, are expected to facilitate deployment in the residential and commercial PV segments.

The maximum rebate in Ireland’s new scheme is €2,400 ($2,345) for PV systems up to 6 kW in size. It will remain at this level for 2022 and 2023.

The final average price in Ireland’s latest procurement exercise came in at €0.09787 ($0.103)/kWh. Wind developers secured 414 MW in the auction.

The Irish authorities have kicked off a new procurement exercise, together with the commissioning of the first solar park built under the nation’s first renewables auction. French developer Neoen built the 8 MW facility at a location south of Dublin.

Through the scheme, the Irish government intends to allocate around 380 MW of solar power. Projects of up to 50 kW will be entitled to participate and installations not exceeding 6 kW in size will be given a maximum rebate of €2,400.

Although wind power dominates the renewables scene in the Republic of Ireland and the North – and even natural gas has a bigger role to play – the grid companies of the neighbors have revised up their estimates of how much solar will be needed, after talking to the public and industry.

The move is part of the National Development Plan 2021-2030, which aims to increase the share of renewable electricity in the generation mix up to 80% and to allocate around 15.5 GW of wind and solar capacity through an auction scheme.

Furthermore, Germany-based large-bore diesel engines and turbomachinery company MAN Energy Solutions is acquiring the majority of shares in the Augsburg-based electrolyzer manufacturer H-TEC Systems, while the India H2 Alliance is expanding with the aim of building consensus for a common path towards hydrogen commercialization in India’s steel and cement sectors.