This week
A €200m fund for district heating, and Mitchelstown opens for biomethane.
Heat led the week. Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment Darragh O’Brien gave nine district heating pilots €5m on 30 September and doubled next year’s construction grant fund to €200m. Gas Networks Ireland opened its €32m Mitchelstown biomethane injection facility on 2 October, and the new €2,000 boiler scrappage payment and €600 home battery grant open on 6 October.
On the grid, the Commission for Regulation of Utilities set fault ride-through rules for data centres after 480 MW of their demand dropped off the system in a single fault in June. Budget 2027 follows on 6 October. The number to carry is 46%, the share of global GDP that electricity now powers.
Philip Connolly, EnergyView
01 Stat of the week
Electrification · IEA
46% of GDP
Share of global GDP generated by activities that electricity powers. Electricity is 23% of final energy and 37% of useful energy.
Source · IEA Special Report on Electrification, 22 September 2026, charted by Liebreich Associates
02 Energy news
Top story · Heat
District heating construction fund doubles to €200m as nine pilots get €5m
Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment Darragh O’Brien allocated €5m of pre-construction funding to nine district heating projects in seven counties on 30 September, at the Irish District Energy Association annual conference, under a pilot scheme run by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) and the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment (DCEE). Heatgrid Ireland holds three of the projects, in Castletroy, Galway and Portlaoise, and Yuno Energy Heat one in Leixlip, with Louth, Fingal, Monaghan and Kildare county councils behind the other five in Drogheda, Dundalk, Blanchardstown, Monaghan and Naas.
O’Brien also said the €100m fund for district heating construction grants from next year will double to €200m, Business Post reported. Developers will be offered grants of up to 50% of eligible costs under a co-investment model, with the State holding an option to buy the networks back after 20 to 30 years, as in motorway public private partnerships.
30 September 2026 · Source · DCEE, Business Post
EnergyView analysis
The motorway model comes to heat networks
The number that matters is €400m. At grant support of up to 50% of eligible costs, a €200m fund carries at least €400m of network investment, with private partners financing the balance against long-term heat sales. A State buy-back option after 20 to 30 years gives lenders a defined exit, a structure Irish infrastructure finance already knows from motorway public private partnerships.
Eight of the nine pilots sit outside Dublin, so the first wave tests the model in regional cities and towns. The projects that reach construction first will be those with a secured low-cost heat source, such as data centre or incinerator waste heat, and a public sector anchor customer. What to watch is whether Budget 2027 on 6 October carries the €200m as a multi-annual allocation, and which pilots clear assessment for construction grants in 2027.
EnergyView analysis of DCEE and Business Post figures, 30 September 2026
Biomethane
Gas Networks Ireland opens its €32m Mitchelstown injection hub
Gas Networks Ireland (GNI) opened its €32m Central Grid Injection facility at Mitchelstown, Co. Cork, on 2 October, which GNI says is the first of its kind in Ireland and Europe. It takes biomethane by trailer from anaerobic digestion plants too far from the network to connect by pipe, with capacity to inject up to 700 GWh a year and save about 130 kt of CO₂ annually at full output. GNI has set out Mitchelstown as the first of several central injection facilities in its Pathway to a Net Zero Carbon Network.
2 October 2026 · Source · RTÉ, Gas Networks Ireland
Grid · Regulation
Data centres must ride through grid faults under new CRU rules
The Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) has introduced a Grid Code modification requiring transmission-connected large energy users, including data centres, to stay connected through faults and recover to 90% of pre-fault demand, PA reported on 1 October. It follows warnings from EirGrid and the System Operator for Northern Ireland (SONI) after about 480 MW of data centre demand, 52% of the total, dropped off the grid during a single-phase fault at Poolbeg 220 kV station on 6 June. The CRU says credible fault scenarios could now produce imbalances above 1,300 MW, against 900 MW that existing defence measures can handle, with data centre demand peaking at up to 1,000 MW in June and August. EirGrid is holding data centre demand that cannot ride through faults below 1,000 MW, and says compliant data centres can still use their full contracted import capacity.
1 October 2026 · Source · Irish Independent, CRU
Policy · Storage
€600 battery grant and €2,000 boiler scrappage open on 6 October
The Government approved the household and business energy grants package on 29 September, with the measures opening on 6 October. Homes get a €600 battery grant alongside solar PV support, a €2,000 payment for scrapping oil and kerosene boilers on top of heat pump grants, and solar grant eligibility for homes built and occupied before 2025, while lower-income households can get up to €9,000 for solar and battery systems and medically vulnerable households have both fully funded. Business support for solar PV rises to 45%, which DCEE says could cut a firm’s energy costs by up to €300,000 a year.
29 and 30 September 2026 · Source · DCEE, pv magazine, Agriland
EU · Markets
Iran war adds more than €100bn to the EU’s energy bill
European Energy Commissioner Dan Jørgensen told EU energy ministers meeting in Dublin on 29 September that securing supplies has cost the bloc more than €100bn extra since late February, after the escalation in the Middle East and disruption in the Strait of Hormuz. He warned of very high oil and gas prices this winter but no supply shortfall, urged member states to cut gas demand and peak electricity use, and proposed a one-year delay to new EU methane emission rules to ease pressure on markets. Minister Darragh O’Brien, hosting the informal meeting for the Irish Presidency, said member states have flexibilities on energy taxation to ease the impact, a week before Budget 2027.
29 September 2026 · Source · RTÉ, Irish Examiner, Business Post
EVs
Electric car registrations jump 80% in September
New battery electric car registrations rose 80% in September on the same month last year, Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI) figures showed on 1 October, lifting electric cars to 27.43% of new car registrations so far in 2026. That is up from 26.3% at the end of August, when the year-to-date total stood at 32,079. SIMI wants Budget 2027 to extend electric car supports, with Vehicle Registration Tax (VRT) relief for battery electric cars due to end on 31 December 2026.
1 October 2026 · Source · RTÉ, CompleteCar, SIMI
Solar
First solar farm under the small-scale support scheme energises in Cork
The 650 kW Meadhill Solar Farm at Kildorrery, Co. Cork, developed by farmer Sean Keating and installed by PV Generation, is the first solar project to energise under the Small-Scale Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (SRESS), DCEE announced on 28 September. SRESS supports projects of 50 kW to 6 MW, the segment between rooftop microgeneration and utility-scale auctions, and Flogas has signed a 15-year power purchase agreement for Meadhill’s output.
28 September 2026 · Source · DCEE, Business Plus
Also worth knowing
● A planning application for a 75 MW battery energy storage station near Cloghan, Co. Offaly, has been lodged with Offaly County Council, the Offaly Independent reported on 2 October. · Offaly Independent
● Solar Ireland’s first workforce report, The Experience Gap, puts direct and indirect jobs in solar and onshore wind at 10,500 to 11,500 and finds employers short of experienced engineers and project managers, the Irish Examiner reported on 29 September. · Irish Examiner
● The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued its first construction permit for a commercial small modular reactor on 29 September, a 300 MW BWRX-300 at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Clinch River site, while Ireland’s 1999 ban on nuclear generation remains in place. · NRC
03 Open consultations
14 December · Monday · 70 days left
European Commission · Minimum performance standards for data centres
Call for evidence and public consultation on EU-wide standards that build on the new rating scheme. Operators and developers with Irish sites, and heat network promoters, should respond.
EU · Open · Carried from No. 020
Also open. DCEE on the wholesale gas provisions of Directive (EU) 2024/1788, opened 30 July with no closing date published.
04 Conferences & webinars
20 October · Tuesday
Flexibility Needs Assessment industry workshop
CRU, EirGrid and ESB Networks at the Herbert Park Hotel, Ballsbridge. A walk-through of the 2028 and 2030 needs and the market and regulatory barriers the assessment identifies. Free.
10am to 2pm · Dublin · Register at cru.ie
21 October · Wednesday
Renewable Energy Expo Ireland 2026
RDS Dublin. Wind Energy Ireland, Solar Ireland and Energy Storage Ireland together for the first time. Registration is open.
Two days · Dublin · Register at windenergyireland.com
7 November · Saturday
Nevo Electric Vehicle Show 2026
RDS Simmonscourt. Runs 7 and 8 November.
Two days · Dublin · nevo.ie
18 November · Wednesday
H2 Summit 2026
Hydrogen Ireland and the Clean Hydrogen Partnership at Fota Island Resort, Cork. Runs 18 and 19 November, with optional site visits on the morning of 18 November.
Two days · Cork · hydrogenireland.org
24 November · Tuesday
National Retrofitting Conference 2026
Johnstown Estate, Co. Meath. Run in partnership with SEAI, now in its sixth year.
One day · Meath · Details at engineersireland.ie
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.
Nine district heating pilots in seven counties, with a €200m construction fund behind them. Irish heat networks now have a pipeline.
Philip Connolly
Editor · EnergyView