A completed renovation of a home in Ireland, renovated with the support of the pilot scheme. Photo: Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI)
In 2017, Ireland launched a pilot scheme to evaluate policy mechanisms designed to incentivise deep retrofits, either by homeowners or by market players. With the aim of bringing houses rated at C (or below) up to A, the programme sought to assess the effectiveness of:
grant support to make extensive home upgrades achievable and attractive to homeowners; and
incentives to spark market engagement in delivering integrated, whole house solutions at a reasonable scale.
Homes that met the criteria for what could be defined as a ‘deep retrofit’ were eligible to apply for a grant that paid 50% of the costs of the renovation. The programme was designed to investigate the technical, financial and behavioural challenges and opportunities associated with deep retrofits, with the ultimate goal of informing policy options for future programmes.
Between 2017 and July 2019, the programme was carried out on 261 homes. The Irish government estimates that criteria by which homes could qualify for grants under the pilot applies to around 1 million homes in the country. As such, the potential energy savings and emissions reduction is enormous.
