Low Carbon Homes Programme

It was announced this week that the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Eamon Ryan TD, has issued plans to provide developers of new high energy efficient homes a grant of up to 40%. He plans to make Ireland the role model in Europe in regards to energy conservation and low carbon homes. Developers will be required to use alternative energy sources such as solar photovoltaic, micro-wind and micro combined heat and power (CHP) to achieve the high standards required for the grants.

€9 million grant for construction of energy efficient housing

The money which will be provided by Sustainable Energy Ireland will be available on new homes that achieve at least a 70% more energy efficient and produce at least 70% less CO2 than homes built to the 2005 standard. Homes must also achieve a (BER) Building Energy Rating of at least A2. Homes already built to the 2005 standards achieve on average a BER of B1, two points below the requirements of the new programme.

The Minister has stated funding of €9 million will be available up to the end of 2011, with the overall aim being to achieve zero or very low carbon emissions from supported homes.

“These will be houses where energy waste is minimised and where heat is produced and electricity generated on site. This is the housing of the future.”

Here is a list of minimum standards homes must achieve in order qualify for the grant.

• A Building Energy Rating (BER) of A2 or better for each property in the project.
• An energy performance coefficient less than 0.25
• A CO2 performance coefficient less than 0.30
• Generate electricity on site to the equivalent of 10kWh/m2/yr or more per unit.