It's the first thing almost everyone asks. Does solar even work in Ireland?
It's a fair question in a country where you'd pack a raincoat for a summer barbecue.
The short answer is yes. Whether it's worth it on your house is a different question, and it comes down to four things.
1. Panels run on daylight, not sunshine
Solar panels generate from daylight. A bright overcast day still produces power, just less of it than a clear one.
Ireland gets less sun than Spain, but not dramatically less than Germany, which has some of the most solar panels per person in Europe. And Irish summer days are long. In June it's light from before 5am until after 10pm.
What you lose in winter you largely make back between April and September.
2. Irish electricity is expensive
This is the big one. Irish household electricity prices are among the highest in Europe.
Every unit your panels produce and you use yourself is a unit you don't buy. The more each unit costs, the faster the panels earn back what they cost.
So the weather works against solar in Ireland, but the price of electricity works strongly for it.
3. You get paid for what you export
Power you don't use flows out to the grid. Under the Clean Export Guarantee, your electricity supplier pays you for it.
The rate is set by each supplier, varies between them, and changes over time, so it's worth comparing before you choose a supplier. A small amount of that export income each year is also tax-free.
Export pays less per unit than what you save by using the power yourself. That's why when you use electricity matters (see point 4).
4. When you use electricity matters as much as how much
Two houses with identical panels can get very different returns.
A household where someone's home during the day, running the washing machine, the dishwasher or charging a car while the sun's up, uses more of its own solar power. That's worth the full price of electricity.
A household that's out from 8 till 6 exports most of its daytime power and gets paid the lower export rate for it. A battery can help, by storing daytime power for the evening, but it adds cost.
Then take the grant off
The SEAI grant pays up to €1,800 towards the system. It doesn't change whether solar suits your house, but it does shorten the time it takes to pay back. Our guide to the SEAI grant covers who qualifies and the order to do things in.
When solar doesn't add up
To be straight with you, solar isn't right for every home:
- A north-facing roof, or one shaded most of the day by trees or a neighbouring building.
- A roof that needs replacing soon. Do the roof first, or you'll pay to take the panels off and put them back.
- You're moving within a few years and don't expect the panels to add to the sale price.
- Very low electricity use. If your bills are already small, there's less to save.
So, is it worth it?
For a typical Irish home with a reasonable roof, and someone using power during the day, solar usually pays its way over the life of the system. The high price of electricity does most of the work, and the grant helps.
The only way to know for your house is to get the numbers for your own roof and usage, and to compare more than one quote.
