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Today, Minister for Energy, Pat Rabbitte T.D. gave the keynote speech at the second Annual Retrofit Conference in Croke Park. Minister Rabbitte focussed on the idea of financing more comprehensive energy efficiency measures to help consumers to save money and make their homes and businesses more energy efficient.

There are approximately one million buildings in Ireland that would benefit from some form of energy efficiency retrofit which could lead to lifetime energy savings worth €16 billion, setting aside the additional health and wellbeing benefits,. To date, efficiency upgrades have been completed in over 33,000 homes this year and over 96,000 homes since the programme commenced in 2009. In total, the estimated energy savings achieved are 529 Gigawatt hours or just over €33 million.

There are still obstacles which can create barriers to realising the full technical and economic potential for energy efficiency for the moment. These barriers include a lack of knowledge of the benefits of energy efficiency measures; a lack of access to capital and high costs of capital.

One of the ways that this is being addressed is by energy suppliers signing up to voluntary agreements as part of Better Energy: The National Upgrade programme, to deliver competitive energy savings upgrades to homes across the country.

Minister Rabbitte stated that

"Energy suppliers can and should demonstrate a leadership role in more efficient use of energy. By doing so, they can also achieve significant savings on their energy costs, enhancing their competitiveness and that of the economy as a whole."

"By working in partnership with the energy suppliers I hope that we will be able to build scale and encourage innovative solutions. Better Energy will allow for innovation and creativity in the green tech sector, providing an opportunity for indigenous companies to bring their services to market."

The Department of Energy has convened a project team to undertake preliminary analysis of what a pay-as-you-save (PAYS) model could look like with a view to submitting an initial report to Minister Rabbitte in October.