REPowerEU

What is RE Power EU?

REPowerEU is a response to the terrible and inhumane invasion of Ukraine, the resulting sanctions imposed and upheavals in energy markets, through which the European Commission have sought to accelerate our energy independence, encourage energy saving measures, increase renewable energy deployment and diversify our energy supplies.

All of these initiatives are backed by financial and legal measures to accomplish the goals set out.

Energy Independence

Energy is so intrinsic to our everyday lives that it’s difficult to imagine life without constant on-demand energy.

Energy Independence provides a clear objective to decouple our everyday lives from dependence on unreliable or malicious actors. This is a driving force in our work and one of the principle benefits of solar PV.

Energy Independence applies on the small-scale to homes and businesses, as well as on the larger scale to cities, countries or continents.

Accelerating Clean Energy

It’s already widely accepted that renewable energy is the cheapest available energy source, which is both universally available and can be locally deployed, thereby reducing energy dependence.

This is emphasised in the RePowerEU plan.

Along with the EU Solar Energy Strategy, RePowerEU aims to deploy an additional 420 GW of solar PV by 2025, increasing the total to almost 600 GW across the union by 2030.

The numbers are encouraging.

The European Commission clearly recognises the role of rooftop solar PV in the climate crisis, aswell as the current energy crisis, and national governments would do well to follow these indicators.

RePowerEU Funding via RRF

Last week (10/11/22), the measures in the RePowerEU plan were officially incorporated into the Recovery and Resilience Fund (RRF) – which now provides the (main) funding mechanism to accomplish the goals set out.

This funding to the value of €300 Billion is available through the RRF and other EU funding mechanisms.

In the short-term, the objective to increase our renewables deployment is clear. The REPowerEU plan specifies a “rapid rollout of solar and wind energy projects” – although we can only hope that “rapid” has a universal meaning.

In the medium-term, the funds available through the RRF are intended for investment in our electricity grid infrastructure – among other objectives.

This is an important objective, particularly in Ireland where the threat of power cuts, power shortages or electricity rationing have been repeatedly highlighted by the regulator.

We hope that Ireland can tap into this new, additional funding available through REPowerEU to increase our grid resilience, and hopefully to deploy several additional Gigawatts of Solar PV projects along with new Hydro Power and necessary storage projects in order to bring more balance to our national energy portfolio.

The clock is ticking.

Realistic Solar Ambitions for Ireland

We would like to see Ireland’s solar ambitions increase to between 10 – 20 GW of solar PV projects. Which would be in line with Denmark or New Zealand, or other countries of a similar size.

The European Commission call for “rapid rollout” has not yet translated to any urgency on behalf of government here.

We really don’t see any meaningful shift whatsoever in government response to these drastic impacts in the energy sector.

Throwing money at utility companies via electricity bills doesn’t solve a single short-term problem or resolve the unjustified increases being imposed by utility companies – especially “100% renewable” utility companies.

Feel free to Contact Us if you wish to discuss your next solar energy project.