Farmers who are applying for a 60% grant under the Solar Capital Investment Scheme (SCIS) may not see panels on their farm until next year.

This was the warning solar PV suppliers were giving farmers at this year’s National Ploughing Championships.

The scheme opened for applications earlier this year, and despite the Department of Agriculture receiving over 700 applications in the first tranche, no farmers have received approval yet. Other TAMS schemes are also facing similar delays.

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Delay

During a renewables talk at the Irish Farmers Journal stand last week, Darren Buckley, Renewable Energy Director of Alternative Energy Ireland, said that farmers applying for the next tranche of the scheme likely won’t have solar panels on their roofs until the following year.

This delay will extend the payback period for these solar systems as energy prices continue to decrease. Furthermore, the TAMS batch processing approach results in a flood of requests from farmers to install panels at the same time once a tranche is approved, leading to further delays.

The Department was contacted for a fifth time this week by the Irish Farmers Journal to clarify these issues, but at the time of going to print, they had not responded.