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● This week
A €600 battery grant for Cabinet, and 472 MWh moved off the peak.Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment Darragh O’Brien takes a household energy package to Cabinet on Tuesday, a week before Budget 2027. At its centre is a €600 grant for home batteries, returning four years after the last one was withdrawn. Solar grants widen to homes built before 2025, and a €2,000 boiler scrappage payment starts in January. The Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment has put 2050 hydrogen demand at up to 34.4 TWh, against under 0.2 TWh today. Gas Networks Ireland opens its 700 GWh Mitchelstown biomethane injection facility on Friday. The number to carry is 472. That is the megawatt hours more than 50,000 members of ESB Networks’ flexibility community have moved out of peak times. Philip Connolly, EnergyView |
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Top story · Policy
€600 home battery grant heads to Cabinet ahead of the BudgetMinister Darragh O’Brien brings a household energy package to Cabinet on Tuesday 29 September, a week before Budget 2027 on Tuesday 6 October. It includes a €600 grant for home battery storage, paid on top of the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) solar PV grant of up to €1,800, and opens that solar grant to homes built and occupied before 2025, where the cut-off is now 2021. A €2,000 scrappage payment for end-of-life oil and kerosene boilers would add to heat pump grants of up to €12,500, for combined support of up to €14,500 from January 2027, with the battery grant expected from October. SEAI withdrew its previous €600 battery top-up in February 2022, and about half of new solar installations now include a battery, The Irish Times reported. Biomethane
700 GWh Mitchelstown injection facility opens on FridayGas Networks Ireland (GNI) is due to officially open its €32m Central Grid Injection facility outside Mitchelstown, Co. Cork, on Friday 2 October, The Avondhu reported. The facility can inject up to 700 GWh of biomethane a year, equal to 12% of the 5.7 TWh 2030 target in the Climate Action Plan. It serves producers located away from the gas network, who compress biomethane and deliver it by trailer, and expressions of interest from 22 producers came in at two and a half times its capacity. It is the centrepiece of GNI’s €30m GRAZE project, which received €8.4m from the Climate Action Fund. 24 September 2026 · Source · The Avondhu, Gas Networks Ireland Hydrogen
DETE study puts 2050 hydrogen demand at up to 34.4 TWhThe Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment (DETE) published its Sectoral Analysis of Future Hydrogen Demand and End Use in Ireland on 21 September, completed by HyEnergy Consultancy in January. Its Committed Action pathway reaches 11.6 to 34.4 TWh by 2050, needing up to 11.2 GW of electrolysis, against 0.15 to 0.2 TWh today, 90 to 95% of it at the Whitegate refinery. Power generation and aviation fuels carry most of that demand, with hydrogen supplying 5% to 18% of electricity in a zero-emissions power system, while the two slower pathways reach 3.3 to 10.1 TWh and 0.5 to 2.1 TWh. Road transport takes a smaller share, at 2,500 to 7,900 hydrogen vehicles by 2050, 80 to 90% of them heavy-duty. 21 September 2026 · Source · DETE Grid
Wind Energy Ireland counts 3,000 MW of consented wind awaiting connectionWind Energy Ireland (WEI) launched its Onshore Wind Action Plan on 22 September, with 15 actions developed in workshops with 22 renewable energy companies. It reports more than 3,000 MW of onshore wind with planning permission waiting to connect, some told to expect five years or more, alongside just over 5,000 MW installed today. The plan calls for faster delivery of nationally significant transmission projects, a long-term grid roadmap, shared connections for batteries and wind farms, and planning policy aligned with national renewable targets. Minister O’Brien welcomed the plan and said the Government is committed to strengthening the grid and giving investors greater certainty. Regulation
Competition watchdog searches solar firms in bid-rigging probeThe Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) confirmed on 25 September that it had searched businesses in the solar panel industry, supported by Garda District Detective Units, as part of an investigation into suspected bid-rigging in public tenders. The CCPC did not name the businesses or say where they are based. Commission member Úna Butler said the searches do not imply that any breach of competition law has occurred. The CCPC runs a Cartel Immunity Programme with the Director of Public Prosecutions and has asked anyone with information to come forward. 25 September 2026 · Source · CCPC, RTÉ, The Irish Times EU · Data centres
Brussels sets public ratings for data centres above 500 kWThe European Commission published a Delegated Regulation on 21 September giving every data centre with at least 500 kW of IT load an automatic public rating label, first issued by 15 August 2027 and every year after. Labels will report power usage effectiveness, water use, waste heat reuse, renewable and nuclear sourcing through guarantees of origin, power purchase agreements and on-site supply, and whether a site provides flexibility to the grid. A separate consultation on EU minimum performance standards runs to 14 December, with a proposal due in the second quarter of 2027. In Ireland, the Dáil took Second Stage of Labour’s Electricity Regulation Bill 2025 on 24 September, which would give the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) power to require on-site renewable generation from data centres. 21 and 24 September 2026 · Source · European Commission, Arthur Cox, Oireachtas EU · Nuclear
Italy’s Senate clears the legal path back to nuclear powerItaly’s Senate gave final approval on 23 September to legislation reopening the country to nuclear power, by 81 votes to 51, nearly four decades after a 1987 referendum closed its reactors. The law gives the government 12 months to adopt decrees on licensing, safety, waste and siting, and provides for an independent regulator, with a focus on small modular and other advanced reactors. The government estimates that nuclear at 11% or more of the energy mix could save €17bn in decarbonisation costs by 2050. Ireland’s 1999 ban remains, and the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment (DCEE) has put nuclear generation in the 2040s at the earliest because the regulatory system it would need does not yet exist. International · Transport
Battery trucks take over 99% of the zero-emission truck marketBloombergNEF’s 2026 Commercial ZEV Factbook, published on 17 September, counts almost 158,000 zero-emission medium and heavy-duty trucks sold worldwide in the first half of 2026, up 75% on a year earlier. Battery electric models took over 99% of sales, while fuel cell truck sales fell 55% to around 530 units, 95% of them in China. European sales rose 50% to more than 11,200, a 5.5% share of new trucks, with Switzerland above 26% and the Netherlands at 18%. Under the EU Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation (AFIR), Ireland’s trans-European transport network (TEN-T) roads need truck charging every 60 to 100 km by 2030. 17 September 2026 · Source · BloombergNEF Also worth knowing
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Also open. DCEE on the wholesale gas provisions of Directive (EU) 2024/1788, opened 30 July with no closing date published. |
Hold the dates. Budget 2027 on Tuesday 6 October. Transport, Telecommunications and Energy Council (Energy) on Thursday 29 October. COP31 in Antalya, 9 to 20 November, Ireland leading EU negotiations as Presidency holder. |
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Mitchelstown opens on Friday with room for 700 GWh a year. One facility has the capacity for 12% of the 2030 biomethane target.
Philip ConnollyEditor · EnergyView |
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