It’s no surprise that the home retrofitting scheme has been the subject of so much discussion over the past few years. A target of half a million homes over eight years in a small country like Ireland is certainly an attention grabber. But the needs of businesses are no less important and there is a range of schemes available to support them in their energy efficiency improvement efforts.
These include a number of very valuable supports from the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI). The Exeed Scheme is for companies planning a major investment and planning in an energy-efficient design project and can offer support of up to €3 million; the Non-Domestic Microgen Scheme offers grants of up to €2,400 towards the installation of solar panels; vouchers worth up to €2,000 are available to eligible business to contribute to the cost of a professional energy audit; and businesses can also avail of quite generous accelerated capital allowances for energy efficiency investments.
The educational supports offered by the SEAI are also very important, according to Fergal Aherne, head of business development with SSE Airtricity. “The key first step for any business to improve its energy efficiency is to get a clear understanding of its energy usage and the SEAI provide educational support to help business operators develop their knowledge of how their business consumes energy and how they could operate more efficiently,” he points out. “The SEAI also provide vouchers towards the cost of an energy audit. An energy audit delivered by a registered energy auditor provides a concise report on energy consumption and develops a register of opportunities for energy conservation measures, including indicative paybacks and suitable grant supports to help implement the measures.”
State support is not restricted to the SEAI, he notes. “There are also other government agencies which offer support to businesses including the Local Enterprise Offices, Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland. These take a variety of forms such as energy audit supports, energy-related consultancy support, energy monitoring grant support, and discounted capital investment funding.”
Many businesses are now considering retrofitting their premises to comply with the latest Near Zero Energy Building and Platinum Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards. “This can be challenging but is achievable,” Aherne advises. “The necessary retrofits and renovations required for an existing building to comply with these standards depends on several varying factors, such as the shape and structure of the building, the floor area, thermal bridging effects, air tightness of the building, heating requirements, materials used in the original construction, ventilation requirements, occupancy, fuel type used and so on. It is important to note that additional challenges may arise if the building is a protected structure. Planning restrictions may limit the options available to businesses that operate from such structures.”
This can make it difficult to know where to start. “That is why the most important piece of advice that we could give a business seeking compliance with these standards, is to conduct an energy audit on your building using an SEAI-registered energy auditor,” he adds.
Renewable heat solutions
What goes on in the building is also important and the heat energy used by manufacturing firms around the country is a major contributor to carbon emissions. Tom Marren, chief executive and co-founder of commercial renewable heat and solar power solutions provider Astatine, explains that Ireland has some catching up to do in this regard.
“Ireland lags behind Europe in terms of renewable heat production,” he says. “We are at 5.8 per cent of our heat coming from renewable sources. The European average is 29.7 per cent and it us up to 55 per cent in the Nordic countries. The electrification of industrial heat in Ireland could produce savings of €2 billion in the economy as well as aiding decarbonisation.”
It makes commercial as well as environmental sense for businesses to invest in renewable heat solutions, he points out. “The payback for commercial high-temperature heat pumps is as short as three to 3½ years. We recently installed an €8 million pump for a client with a payback of 2.7 years. It also displaces 12,000 tonnes of CO2 a year. Another project, this time valued at €4 million, will generate savings of €1.2 million a year. The first 50 to 70 per cent of decarbonisation will make economic sense, it’s the remaining 50 to 30 per cent that can be painful.”
High-temperature heat pumps work by taking the waste heat from production processes and turning it back into useful heat. The company is currently working on a distillery project in Ahascragh, Co Galway. “It will be the only distillery in Europe without a boiler or a chimney,” he points out. “In that process, we are bringing in heat at 120 degrees for the distillation element of the process and then recovering it during the condensing stage.”
The water comes out at 60 degrees, and it is brought back up to 120 degrees through a combination of heating and heat pump technology. The additional heating required is only one-quarter of the total heat energy contained in the water at 120 degrees. The savings are clear, but adoption of the technology is being held up by a lack of awareness.
“People are not comfortable with high-temperature heat pumps,” says Marren. “They don’t understand the technology and think it is the same as domestic air-sourced heat pumps which are very different.”
He also points out that Astatine is able to fund heat pump and solar projects thanks to a line of €70 million in low-cost credit from the European Investment Bank and Irish state sources. “The funding model is very simple. We simply charge a price per unit of electricity generated over the period for solar PV installations. In one case we have been able to offer the client a rate of 8 cent per unit, well below market rates. That was for an installation of more than 20 acres.”
The model is similar for heat. “We are providing heat as a service,” he explains. “We are all used to buying kilowatts of gas and electricity, we are selling kilowatts of heat.”
Embarking on the decarbonisation journey
SSE Airtricity also supports its customers on their energy efficiency and decarbonisation journeys. “We are a participating energy supplier within the SEAI’s Energy Efficiency Obligation Scheme, and we offer financial support to Irish businesses implementing energy efficiency upgrade measures,” says Aherne. “Businesses considering energy efficiency upgrades should engage with SSE Airtricity and we can provide technical support and advice on what steps are required to capture and verify the energy savings in order for them to benefit from financial support based on the energy savings achieved from the upgrade. SSE Airtricity also offers business customers assistance and guidance on supports and grants available, such as the SEAI’s Community Energy Grant and Exeed schemes.”
The company’s energy engineers can also deliver energy audits to both medium size businesses availing of the SEAI SME energy audit voucher and larger businesses who are obliged to carry out an energy audit every four years under the Energy Auditing Compliance Scheme, he adds.
“SSE Airtricity can also offer businesses a fully funded solar PV system at no upfront cost once they have sufficient roof space or land,” he continues. “Businesses pay for the electricity generated through a power purchase agreement and ownership of the system transfers to the business at the end of the agreement.”
He believes decarbonisation represents both a necessity and an opportunity. “While all businesses should be conscious of how future regulatory changes may impact their business, embarking on a decarbonisation journey and improving the energy efficiency of a business’s buildings should be considered an opportunity,” he says.
“Businesses that invest in energy efficiency measures and on-site renewable generation should ultimately make their operations more efficient and may gain an advantage over their competitors while positively contributing to climate change by reducing the business’s impact on the environment.”