Ireland which depend on imported fossil fuels for 91% at least (going by 2006 statistics) for it’s heating energy needs has initiated several grants schemes through the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI for short). There are so many valuable and useful grants on offer which many of the home and buildings owners miss some of the important ones, though not intentionally.

Why grants one may ask.

These grants are there for several reasons providing a backdrop for popularizing and introducing the Irish population for sustainable energy usage in their buildings. The SEAI by this programme attempts to demonstrate superior energy technologies or provide essential support in specific fields.

The grants are in the form of financing specific tasks of the project and may be generally reimbursed in full subject to approval. From the point of view of applicability the grant schemes can be broadly divided in to Domestic and Commercial applications and then the other mega programmes.

Undoubtedly the ultimate goal of the whole scheme is to make Ireland a leading nation in the utilization of sustainable energy. With this in mind the grant schemes are categorized and implemented in four sectors. viz.

• Domestic Grants –There are three grant programmes effective in this category at the moment. These are ;

• Greener Homes Scheme (phase iii) -This is a programme providing grants for existing dwellings only. If your home has been built prior to July 2008 and you intend to replace the existing heating systems with a new and approved renewable energy system, this is one scheme for you.

• Home Energy Saving Scheme (insulation grants) – The identifier Insulation Grants is a bit of a misnomer. The grant is available for several other aspects of sustainable energy and energy conservation. For eg. Installing high efficiency condensing boilers, heating control upgrade etc.

• Warmer Homes Scheme – It is estimated Ireland has about 60,000 homes permanently and consistently subject to energy poverty and several folds of others subjected to it intermittently during the year causing untold hardships to the inhabitants and also their well being. The cause can be easily eliminated with low cost modifications to the building structure and construction and SEAI grants are available for implimenting these improvements in your home.

• Commercial Grants – There are five categories of schemes under this section and have special incentives for commercial building and enterprises in order to embark on sustainable energy programmes and other primary targets of SEAI. These categories are;

• Renewable Heat Deployment Programme – A scheme in operation since 2007, this propramme provides assistance to industrial, commercial, public and community projects of Ireland in deployment of renewable energy. Grants are available for categories Thermal Systems and Heat Pumps.

• Combined Heat and Power deployment programme – Included categories are Fossil Fuel CHPs (now closed for application) and Biomass Fuelled CHPs (only limited discretionary support available at present).

• Sustainable Energy Incubator programme – A programme designed to bridge the financial gap and foster business enterprises engaged in identified new and existing Renewable Energy development ventures.

• Public Sector Programme – A programme that provide grant funding through other programmes such as Renewable Heat Deployment programme. Meant only for the public sector projects.

• Energy Efficiency Retrofit Fund – Existing building retrofits and upgrading are grant funded with the aim of achieving a major increase in energy efficiency of public and business sector building through a specific time frame.

• Research and Development (R & D) Grants- You will find four grant schemes in this section namely;

• RERRD programme

• Micro and Small Scale Generation Pilot

• Ocean Energy Development Unit

• NER 300

• Other Grants – There are three schemes in operation under this category.viz.

• Electric Vehicles Grant Scheme

• Sustainable Energy Incubator Programme

• Intelligent Energy Europe programme

The last two categories mentioned are meant for macro scale projects except for the newly introduced Electric Vehicles Grant Scheme. The purchase of Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) and Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) are covered in this. The Irish government has decided to have at least 6000 BEVs and PHEVs by 2012 in order to achieve it’s goals of reduction in fossil fuel imports and emission of green house gases to the atmosphere. Accordingly up to Euro 5000 grant will be available for BEVs and up to Euro 2500 will be available for PHEVs. In addition there will be zero RVT on the former and relief of Euro 2500 for PHEVs for the same.

The grants are withdrawn or held up from time to time depending on policy decisions and the availability of funding. A good example is the necessity of BER certification before and after HES scheme and the grant available for only one of them, (which too is now reduced in value). It is important therefore to ensure a particular grant that interest you is in effect at the time of your making the application and the ground conditions are correctly understood.