New grants ranging from €700 to €3,800 are available for solar photovoltaic installations and battery storage systems that are installed from 31 July on domestic buildings built before 2011.

While the scheme’s initial phase covers homes only, “it can be expanded both in terms of output on to the grid, but also, for example, farmers putting it up on their sheds,” Minister for Communications, Climate Action and the Environment Denis Naughten told the Irish Farmers Journal.

IFA renewables project leader Tom Short and Micro Renewable Energy Federation chair Pat Smith both welcomed the scheme as “a first step” and urged Minister Naughten to extend it to farm and commercial buildings

Smith said that a 4kWp system with battery storage covered by the maximum €3,800 grant costs between €8,000 and €10,000, with payback expected in five to six years of the installation’s 25-year lifetime.

It may be attractive to many farms using a single domestic electricity meter for both the family home and the farmyard yard, he added.

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New grants available for photovoltaic panels and battery storage are reserved for domestic buildings but may suit farms using a single meter for home and yard use.