merrion street

Minister for Education Norma Foley TD has today welcomed the announcement by the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications Eamon Ryan TD of support for non-domestic buildings including schools for the provision of €2,400 for up to 6 KW of photovoltaic panels for electricity generation. The new grant scheme will be administered by the SEAI (Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland).

Minister Foley said: “I welcome the announcement by Minister Ryan of support for non-domestic buildings for the provision of €2,400 for up to 6 KW of photovoltaic panels (PV) for electricity generation.

“The provision of PV and electric vehicle charging infrastructure in existing schools has been provided to date with full funding under the Summer Works where a school is undergoing a full electrical upgrade. This provision will be expanded in 2023 and future years to include all categories within the Summer Works Scheme and will also encompass the new SEAI funding support which will be dealt with centrally between the two Departments and not require application from individual schools.”

The Department will be inviting schools to apply for upgrade works under a new climate focused multi-annual Summer Works Scheme in the coming months and therefore there is no need to apply under the SEAI Scheme announced today (which involves grant funding for PV of circa. 10% to 20% of the cost depending on complexity).  The Summer Works Scheme enables 100% of the cost to be covered for schools and through the categorisation arrangements etc. provides an integrated and systematic manner for helping to deliver on the climate agenda, including PV, across the school system to assist in meeting 2030 climate targets . 

It is envisaged that the remaining categories of projects from the current Multi-Annual Summer Works Scheme (categories 8, 9 and the balance of 10) will be dealt with as part of the Summer Works Programme in 2023 and relevant schools will be notified in Q4 2022 in relation to this.

It is also envisaged that a new Climate focused Multi-Annual Summer Works Scheme will be opened for new applications in Q1 2023. This will have a strong climate action aspect to it. Further details will be announced later in Q4 2022.

Notes to Editors

The Summer Works Scheme (SWS) is designed to allow schools to carry out small and medium-scale building works that will improve and upgrade existing school buildings.

The scheme provides flexibility in determining which categories (or parts of categories) get approved in any given year.