Dempsey launches renewable energy grant scheme
Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Noel Dempsey, today announced a new grant aid scheme of up to €22m for commercial renewable heat technologies.
The Commercial Bioheat Scheme, which was agreed in last year's Budget, is part of a multi-annual finance package of €65m for renewable energy that will also include grants for a range of renewable heat, electricity and transport initiatives.
“This scheme is particularly relevant in the context of rising fossil fuel costs,” said Dempsey.
“Despite the fact that renewable energy systems have low running costs, high equipment and installation costs have prevented many businesses from making the switch.
“This scheme recognises the contribution that businesses want to make in reducing energy demand, and will provide concrete support for them to make the switch to low cost, low emission heating systems.”
The scheme will allow companies and small businesses to obtain grants for the installation of wood chip and wood pellet boilers in large buildings and commercial premises.
Grant aid will be up to 30% of overall cost depending on the overall size of the project.
The project will be rolled-out over a five-year period starting from this week and could potentially support the conversion to renewable energy in up to 600 installations.
“When the programme is fully rolled out, approximately 600,000 Megawatt hours of wood fuel will be used annually which will displace in the region of 60m litres of heating oil per year,” said Dempsey. “This will result in a reduction of CO2 emissions of about 160,000 tonnes per year.”
“This new scheme will build on the success of the recent Greener Homes scheme which has proved very popular with the public.
“All of us, companies as well as individuals, must play our part in moving to a more efficient and cleaner energy economy,” said Dempsey.
Details of the scheme and application forms will be available on the Sustainable Energy Ireland (SEI) website (http://www.sei.ie) from Wednesday June 7.
A dedicated low-call phone line (1850 734 734) will also be open from then to deal with queries and applications.
