Future Ready Fuel in the Republic of Ireland

The Republic of Ireland is now on a legally binding path to net-zero emissions no later than 2050, and to a 51% reduction in emissions by the end of this decade.

As part of efforts to reach net zero targets, the Government Coalition’s flagship Housing for All plan outlines objectives to install 600,000 heat pumps by 2030, 400,000 of which will be in existing buildings.

The government is offering a grant of up to 50% of a deep retrofit, however the average cost is €56,000, which leaves a large bill for the homeowner to finance. Almost 50% of homes in ROI have a BER rating of D to G, meaning that they would require major upgrades to work efficiently with a heat pump. 

Also, recent data would suggest that homeowners are not prepared to make the shift to heat pumps as only

A recent survey from Fuels for Ireland and TAZCH found that 69% of Irish households have no plans to install a heat pump, rising to 75% for households in rural areas. This rises to over 80% for homeowners over 55 years of age. Given that one third of homeowners with a liquid fuel boiler are over the age of 65, financial payback of many of the current technology options far exceed the lifespan of many Irish homeowners.

According the Government’s 2020 ‘Long Term Renovation Strategy’, more than one-third of Irish dwellings are in rural areas and 93% of these dwellings are either detached or semi-detached. With high numbers of rural and detached dwellings, retrofit project aggregation becomes much more challenging due to such houses having a greater floor area than other dwelling types, along with high surface area to volume ratios leading to greater heat loss.

This demonstrates that a one-size-fits-all approach to heating decarbonisation for rural Ireland will not work and is likely to exclude many from energy efficiency gains and emissions reductions. Government policies need to cater to the household types and demographics of rural Ireland. On the other hand, a switch to low carbon fuels can lead to a significant reduction in emissions,

OFTEC is calling on Government to include Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil in the energy mix, as a simple, affordable and effective solution to decarbonising the home heating sector. Whilst heat pumps will be the right choice for many in new build or thermally efficient homes, for those living in older properties they may not run efficiently.

We have met with a number of parties ahead of the election and are confident that a new stance towards ‘mixed’ technology will be on the cards.