Unfortunately, in Ireland there isn’t a huge amount of grants for renewable energy projects available, especially when compared with the UK.

We think the Irish government could do more to support home owners and businesses that are forward thinking and considering renewable energy.

However, we have listed what is available below:

If you know of any grants which we have not suggested here, please advise.

Republic of Ireland

SEAI Grants
Please follow the link below for more information on SEAI grants
http://www.seai.ie/Grants/

SEAI- Better Energy Homes Scheme
Currently, the Better Energy Homes Scheme is available for homeowners to apply for €800 grant aid towards a solar thermal system.
http://www.seai.ie/Renewables/Solar_Energy/Solar_Policy_and_Funding/Solar_Grants/

SEAI- Accelerated Capital Allowance (ACA)
The ACA is a tax incentive for companies paying corporation tax and aims to encourage investment in energy efficient equipment. The ACA offers an attractive incentive whereby it allows companies to write off 100% of the purchase value of qualifying energy efficient equipment against their profit in the year of purchase.
http://www.seai.ie/Your_Business/Accelerated_Capital_Allowance/

Leader Grants
Making an Application for LEADER funding-
Any entrepreneurs or community groups interested in establishing a business or a service in a rural area should approach their local LEADER group (LAG). Whether you are at a very early stage and need advice, training, mentoring or encouragement from people who know the challenges associated with rural enterprise development, or if you have a project which needs matching capital funding you should contact the LAG in your area. Funding can be secured up to €500,000 for community groups and €150,000 for any private promoter with eligible Farm based projects being in a position to apply for up to €200,000. The normal funding level for LEADER ranges from a couple of thousand euros to twenty or thirty thousand, the larger grants are the exception rather than the rule.
http://www.nrn.ie/the-national-rural-network/making-an-application-for-leader-funding/

Teagasc Dairy Hygiene Grant
The Dairy Hygiene Scheme aims to assist dairy farmers in upgrading the dairying facilities on their farms, to ensure continued adherence to EU standards and to further improve on-farm dairy hygiene standards to meet consumer hygiene demands.
The installation of new dairy equipment, in either a new or upgraded dairy, including: -Water Heater
http://www.teagasc.ie/environment/schemes/hygiene1_scheme.asp

Northern Ireland:

The Carbon Trust
The Carbon Trust is a world-leading organisation helping businesses, governments and the public sector to accelerate the move to a low-carbon economy through carbon reduction, energy-saving strategies and commercialising low-carbon technologies.
As well as offering the full range of Carbon Trust services, they also provide interest-free loans to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Northern Ireland, investing in energy-saving projects, supported by Invest Northern Ireland.
Since 2003, they have provided nearly £20million in interest-free loans to hundreds of businesses, enabling them to reduce their lifetime energy expenditure by more than £83million.
For more information: http://www.carbontrust.com/client-services/northern-ireland

Renewable Heat Incentive – NI
The Department of Enterprise Trade & Investment in Northern Ireland have plans to extend the Renewable heat incentive to Northern Ireland.In the mean time they are offering technology vouchers. Please view our other post about this.

United Kingdom:

Renewable Heat Incentive
The Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) is a UK Government scheme that provides financial support to non-domestic renewable heat generators and producers of biomethane.The second phase of this project will include domestic installations.A number of technologies are included on this scheme including: biomass boilers, CHP biomass boilers, solar thermal etc…The RHI provides a continuous income stream for twenty years to any organisation that installs an eligible renewable heating system, ensuring that renewable heat is commercially attractive when compared to fossil fuel alternatives. The RHI is important because it will help increase significantly the level of renewable heat produced in the UK, which is key to the UK meeting its renewable energy targets, reducing carbon emissions, ensuring energy security and helping to build a low carbon economy. The RHI will accelerate deployment by providing a financial incentive to generate heat from renewables instead of fossil fuels.
http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/meeting_energy/Renewable_ener/incentive/incentive.aspx
http://www.decc.gov.uk/assets/decc/What%20we%20do/UK%20energy%20supply/Energy%20mix/Renewable%20energy/policy/renewableheat/1393-rhi-faqs.pdf
Currently the renewable heat incentive is only available in England, Scotland and Wales.

Feed in Tariff – Electricity
The Feed-in Tariffs (FITs) scheme was introduced on 1 April 2010.
Through the use of FITs, DECC hopes to encourage deployment of additional small-scale (less than 5MW) low-carbon electricity generation, particularly by organisations, businesses, communities and individuals that have not traditionally engaged in the electricity market.
This will allow many people to invest in small-scale low-carbon electricity, in return for a guaranteed payment from an electricity supplier of their choice for the electricity they generate and use as well as a guaranteed payment for unused surplus electricity they export back to the grid.
http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/meeting_energy/renewable_ener/feedin_tariff/feedin_tariff.aspx