7. ENERGY EFFICIENCY AND RESIDENTIAL HEATING

Renewable heat supply options and support

Ireland has a legally binding target of meeting 16% of its total final energy demand from renewable sources by 2020 under the 2009 EU Renewable Energy Directive. The heating sector is committed to a share of 12% renewable fuels in that year. Progress towards this goal is slow. Renewable energies accounted for only 6.8% of heating demand in 2016, though its share rose strongly from 2.4% since 2000.

The share of renewables is the result of a strong contribution from the industrial sector and smaller contributions from the residential and commercial sectors. The growth in renewable heat within industry is due to the increase in the use of traditional solid biomass in the wood products and food and beverages industrial sectors, which use production residues for heat generation. The recent growth of modern renewable heat in the residential and services sectors is the result of revised building regulations requiring a share of renewables for new buildings, and policy programmes offering financial incentives for installing new heating systems.

There are several renewable energy sources that can potentially replace fossil fuels used for heating. Important options are heat pumps based on renewable electricity, biomass fuels and biogas. Solar and geothermal heating can provide additional renewable heat, but the potential for a rapid scale-up is limited.

Ireland has a high share of oil use in household boilers, and a high share of coal and peat use in residential heating. It is not proposed to convert these to biomass due to the potential issues relating to air quality.

Biogas could replace natural gas in existing gas boilers. Ireland is considered an immature biogas market with a large potential to increase its biogas production (EC, 2017). The large agricultural sector can provide feedstock (e.g. manure) for biogas production. The use of organic municipal waste as biogas feedstock can also increase. Biogas production provides additional benefits in terms of waste treatment and also generates fertiliser material as a side product. However, the introduction of biogas would come at a significant cost.

Heat pumps provide highly efficient electric heating. They are becoming a more sustainable option in Ireland as the share of renewable electricity increases. They provide additional benefits in terms of not producing any local particle or nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions, unlike coal, peat, oil and biomass combustion in household boilers. This makes heat pumps particularly suitable in urban areas, where air quality can be challenged by local emissions from combustion boilers.

The NDP from 2018 to 2027 places particular importance on decarbonisation of heat generation. One proposed measures is the replacement of oil-fired boilers with heat pumps in at least 170 000 homes by 2027, for which EUR 700 million has been allocated. A grant programme for heat pumps (of up to EUR 3 500) was introduced in 2018. Such a programme will put the supply chain under pressure. The demand for heat pumps may give rise to exceptional growth beyond that which the supply chain can provide for in terms of delivery, installation, after sales services, maintenance, etc. Eligibility for the grant for heat pumps is contingent on the fabric of dwellings meeting a certain performance level. This is necessary to maximise their seasonal coefficient of performance.

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7. ENERGY EFFICIENCY AND RESIDENTIAL HEATING

Renewable heat in the non-residential sector

The government introduced the Support Scheme for Renewable Heat (SSRH) in 2018. This was a programme designed to support renewable heating systems in the nonemissions trading system (non-ETS) sector. Initially, the programme consists of two support mechanisms: an installation grant for heat pumps (which commenced in September 2018), and an operational support for biomass and anaerobic digestion heating systems (which is likely to commence in 2019). The support programme is state funded, with an indicative resource allocation of EUR 300 million up to 2027.

The operational support programme provides a subsidy payment up to 15 years per megawatt hour (MWh) heat for biomass or biogas boilers. The level of subsidy depends on the annual heat production, where smaller installations receive higher subsidies (Table 7.1). Biogas plants with an annual production above 2.4 GWh and biomass plants above 50 GWh are not supported.

The installation grant provides up to 30% of the cost of installing heat pumps. Participants must be commercial, industrial, agricultural, DH or other non-domestic heat users in the non-ETS sector. No support is provided to domestic users under the SSRH programme as they are already eligible for funding from other programmes.

Table 7.1 Subsidies for heat in the SSRH

Source: DCCAE (2017d), Support Scheme for Renewable Heat, www.dccae.gov.ie/documents/Scheme%20for%20Renewable%20Heat%20Scheme%20Overview.pdf.

District heating

District heating (DH) provides a small share of heating in Ireland, mainly just some small local systems, due to the dispersed settlements. One of the few examples of DH systems is in the town of Tralee in county Kerry, which is supplied by a one megawatt (MW) biomass boiler. There are plans to expand this system to include a co-generation2 plant of up to 20 MW, of which 15 MW is thermal. Furthermore, there are plans for other DH systems including two in Dublin. The one in the Docklands area would use heat generated by the Dublin waste to energy plant and could generate 90 MW of DH.

2 Co-generation refers to the combined production of heat and power.

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