Irish developers want people to invest as little as €5 in solar farms

RENEWABLE ENERGY DEVELOPERS are trying to set up a fund that would see members of the public help finance large-scale solar farms with investments of as little as €5.

The Irish Solar Energy Association (ISEA), which represents the solar industry across the island, recently launched a consultation document for ‘community involvement in solar in Ireland’.

The document makes several suggestions to “engage with the community” to speed up the development of Ireland’s solar industry, which remains embryonic compared to the sector in the UK or elsewhere in many European countries.

It makes three core suggestions that it hopes would get more people investing in solar energy. The first was a system of ‘community benefits’, where local people are rewarded for helping a solar project.

“The benefit to the community should be linked to the energy sector or carbon reduction and ideally specific to the project,” the ISEA said.

It gave the example of installing some solar panels on schools depending on how large a solar farm was constructed in the locality.

Community fund

The second proposal was the establishment of a ‘community energy fund’, where people could invest directly in solar projects.

“Individual Irish residents would invest for a defined period with a set rate of return. The (fund) would be owned and operated by the Irish state,” the ISEA said.

“It would match any funds provided by private individuals. These funds would be invested across a portfolio of Irish solar projects on commercial terms.

“The (fund) would be available to all developers to avail of at any stage of the project development process.”

Solar panels in the UK

The last proposal was a ‘community ownership system’, where the hope would be that the local community would take partial ownership of nearby solar developments. The ISEA said in this case a developer would still manage the project and set up the project company.

“The community is offered shares within the project by the project developer. Developers could expand the offering to neighbouring areas and potentially further afield if there is insufficient appetite amongst the project’s hinterland community,” it said.

“Crowdfunding would be an efficient mechanism of keeping transaction costs low while enabling investment from as little as €5 to as much as €500,000 from any one investor.”

It said that the investors could be given subordinate shares in the development “to enable efficient operation of the project”. The ISEA said it will finalise its proposals by 1 January and is looking for input before that date.

Solar support

ISEA chairman David Maguire said community involvement in the renewable energy sector “is a cornerstone to developing a long-term sustainable industry while delivering value for money to the consumer”.

“As a group we wish to deliver effective community engagement, propose a workable community benefit solution and propose real solutions for community shared ownership.”

The move comes soon after Communications Minister Denis Naughten dampened expectations of major support for the solar industry being implemented in the near future.

It had been hoped that some of the Public Service Obligation Levy (PSO), a charge on electricity used to raise money for renewables, could be used to help fund solar development.

However, while Naughten said he “sees a place for solar in the energy mix”, he added: “We cannot have a situation where a new support scheme leads to an excessive increase in people’s electricity bills through a higher Public Service Obligation levy.”

As previously examined by Fora, the ESB has applications for about 3 gigawatts of solar power in the pipeline. For context, Ireland has about the same amount of wind energy capacity currently installed across the country.

However, trade publication Solar Portal Power recently quoted Maguire as saying that he does not expect Irish state support for big solar projects until early 2018.