Over 600 homes upgraded
Over 600 home energy upgrades were undertaken in 2023 in Cavan - the most under the publicly funded SEAI grant schemes.
In total there were 638 upgrades in 2023 - up from 376 in 2022, which equates to an increase of 69.7%.
The details were contained a report published by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) on Thursday giving details on the 47,900 home energy upgrades nationally supported through publicly funded SEAI grant schemes last year.
This represents an increase of 76% on the number of upgrades delivered in 2022. The near 48,000 retrofits completed in 2023 exceeded by 30% the target of 37,000.
Of the homes upgraded, 17,600 achieved a BER B2 or better rating and almost 5,900 were energy-poor homes which benefitted from free energy upgrades.
In addition, the Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien, recently published data showing that a further 2,445 homes were retrofitted under the Local Authority Energy Efficiency Programme.
Minister for the Environment Eamon Ryan hailed the progress and said retrofitting is working. “Irish people in their thousands want to make their homes warmer, cleaner and more efficient to run.
“When we set out our targets, we were told they couldn’t be reached, but 2023 shows that they can, and that they can be exceeded,” he said.
The Government has a target of retrofitting 500,000 homes by 2030. “This year’s record budget of approximately €430 million for SEAI residential and community energy upgrade schemes will allow us to further ramp up delivery. That will mean more households with better homes, cheaper bills and less use of polluting and climate damaging fossil fuels,” said Minister Ryan.
Dr Ciaran Byrne, Director of National Retrofit at SEAI, said applications were up by over a third on 2022 suggesting a growing appreciation by homeowners of the benefits of retrofitting including increasing the value of your home.
“All of this was achieved against a challenging backdrop. While inflation decreased gradually through the year, the combined impact of 10 ten ECB interest rate hikes undoubtedly impacted on disposable funds available to homeowner to invest in areas like retrofitting. There were also some supply side challenges, where the shortage of retrofit labour, particularly in specialist areas such as plumbing and heat pump installation, impacted on some companies’ ability to scale.”
The residential solar photovoltaic scheme was the standout success last year due to incentives, ease of installation and use, and immediate benefits in terms of energy costs in the home.
Heat pump installations were also up 65% but Dr Byrne says faster uptake is needed.
The Government-backed low-cost loan scheme is set to be launched in the coming weeks and SEAI expects this to significantly address the affordability challenge for homeowners to undertake a retrofit.