New solar PV and battery grant launched today

shweeney said:
If the system costs 9K to install, that's a 30 year payback period. No thanks.
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And 30 years assuming the system runs at the same efficiency and requires no maintenance or replacement parts during all that time.
 
Leo said:
And 30 years assuming the system runs at the same efficiency and requires no maintenance or replacement parts during all that time.
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and assuming I live that long and don't move house - it's a terrible deal all round, the govt is going to have to do more to reduce energy use in old houses.

I've looked at solar PV, solar tubes, external insulation - none of them make any financial sense to retrofit at the current grant levels.
 
RMGC11 said:
@shweeney - what measures did you find to be cost effective currently?
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my attic is insulated, we replaced the boiler when we bought the house. Despite this, we still use a lot of gas as it's a 1970s building with no real wall insulation. My neighbour had external insulation done and it cost 14K - at best it might save me €500 a year, so 28 years to pay for itself. You might suggest it's worth doing anyway for the increased comfort in the house, and if you have the money just lying around then maybe so. But I think the govt is going to have to do more given it's EU obligations, and it's probably worth waiting to see what that is. The same goes for solar.

In the meantime, hit "boost"
 
@shweeney, don't forget to factor in Gas rate inflation (conservative estimate would 2% Gas price increase per year) over the next 10 to 20 yrs. This could reduce you initial payback of 28 yr down considerable....
 
Hi all
As the price of pv panels has come down considerably I said that I'd have a look at pv again so I got someone out to price it up for me .Heres my figures which seem to be starting to stack up .I have a big site so am looking at ground mounted although I could go with roof mounted as well although groundmounted will have better alignment.
Price for 6kw system with inverters and small 2.4 kw battery (just a buffer and have phev(10 kw battery) and looking at changing second car for ev through business ) is coming in at just under 10k .grant will be 3800 so that leaves me out of pocket by 6200 .If I can use all or most of 6kwh generated by pvs (big if )this would garner a saving of roughly 1k per annum giving a payback of 6-7 years ,possibly less given the possibility of carbon taxes and thus increase in energy bills .Am I missing something here ?
 
jimmyging said:
Price for 6kw system <snip> If I can use all or most of 6kwh generated
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6kW is a lot of panel, but note that the 6kW rating is the theoretical peak output of the panels in very sunny locations, you'll get a lot less than that in practice over the course of the day. Solar systems in Ireland tend to deliver 75% of their annual output from May to September. The SEAI Solar [broken link removed] has more detail.

Location and panel orientation will be key factors in determining how many kWh you can generate over the course of a typical day. If you consume a lot of electricity in the mornings, better orient the panels so they are more east facing, west facing for usage later in the day.

This 2017 Solar PV where the sun doesn’t shine: paper goes into great detail on the viability of such systems here. They calculate a 21 year payback on a 6kW system in a high demand application. Increasing grants will have reduced that number, but not down to 6-7 years yet.
 
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Thanks for that Leo ,that report looks out of date price wise but the logic used is very interesting .Price wise if I was to use the example used of the domestic installation it would cost me 28 k to install a 6kW system so i think the price of pvs has come down drastically since it was published and combined with the grant it is as a carbon saving project starting to look very interesting .
 
jimmyging said:
that report looks out of date price wise
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It was published in 2017, using pre-grant numbers by the looks of it. Who is quoting ~10k for a 6kW system including battery? What size and brand panels are they suggesting? Going beyond 12sqm or 50% of roof area requires planning permission, I believe any ground installed system will require planning.
 
My understanding is that planning only requires that ground installed can’t go higher than 2m . Panels are tier one monocrystalline 305 W .
 
jimmyging said:
My understanding is that planning only requires that ground installed can’t go higher than 2m
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You're right, with a limit of 25sqm. So where is installing a 6kw system with battery for €10k?
 
I received 2 quotes so far coming in at 10 k , one with 2.4 battery and one without . If you look at solartricity website there are good panels for sale for between 105-142 ex vat each .
 
jimmyging said:
I received 2 quotes so far coming in at 10 k , one with 2.4 battery and one without . If you look at solartricity website there are good panels for sale for between 105-142 ex vat each .
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Again, can you name any of these? Wholesale suppliers are no good if you want to avail of the grant.

To get to 6kW, you're looking at 30sqm of those panels, so you will need to go down the planning route.
 
How can the govt bring in such a scheme when going for 4kw (max allowance in scheme while also getting a battery) of PW panels will end up requiring PP but ignore this within the scheme.
 
Funnyname said:
How can the govt bring in such a scheme when going for 4kw (max allowance in scheme while also getting a battery) of PW panels will end up requiring PP but ignore this within the scheme.
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You can opt for up to a 4kW system with battery, but the grant for the panel element hits the max at 2kW. Average household electricity consumption in Ireland is 11kWh per day, so 4kW of solar or above is overkill in most cases. Too much solar supply causes efficiency problems for the grid too, with large peaks during the middle of the day when demand is at its lowest.
 
Grant is 3800 max

700 per kw installed up to 4kw

1000 for a battery

However once you go over 2k you have to get a battery.

You to get the max grant the govt are requiring households to have to get PP for the install. However that isn't mentioned in the scheme.
 
Leo you are looking for names of suppliers . Are you in the industry yourself or looking at installing ?
 
jimmyging said:
Leo you are looking for names of suppliers . Are you in the industry yourself or looking at installing ?
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I'm not in the industry but curious who's quoting 10k for a 6kW system with 2.4kWh battery.

I'm not interested in installing though, they payback is still too long to make sense.
 
MrEarl said:
...and very simply, that's the reason that there will be so little take up.
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Yeah, the only way I see it making any sense at the moment is for a new build to hit the required energy rating.
 
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