Mayo bucking the trend with solar panel installation

MAYO is bucking the trend when it comes to the installation of solar panels on houses compared to other lower income counties.

Members of the Environment and Climate Change Strategic Policy Committee were informed that the number of solar panels installed on homes in Mayo was greater in comparison to other counties according to research by University College Cork.

Research from Trinity College in Dublin found that residents in lower income counties are less likely to avail of transition to cleaner energy compared to more affluent areas.

However, Laura Dixon, the Climate Change Officer with Mayo County Council revealed that she was recently contacted by Phd students in UCC who found that Mayo was an outlier when it comes to transition to cleaner energy.

“Generally it is the most affluent people who install Solar PVs but Mayo bucks this trend,” she told the SPC meeting in Castlebar.

She added that she was not 100 percent sure why this is the case but believes that the work of Orla Nic Suibhne, the Sustainable Energy Community mentor who works with SEAI may have a lot to do with it.

“We are really lucky in Mayo to have a brilliant person working with the community on energy transition. You see way more solar in Tourmakeady than in any other village or town because of the work of the sustainable energy community. In Mayo we have communities who want to take action. UCC wanted to understand the reason for this and I’m not sure if they found out the reason.”

READ: Work on age-friendly apartments at west Mayo convent site to start in May

Ms Dixon was responding to comments by Independent councillor Harry Barrett on the affordability of climate action and agreed a lot more work needs to be done to make the transition to cleaner energy more accessible for people.

Cllr Barrett had commented on the Trinity College research and felt it proved that there were too many barriers for people with low incomes to avail of grants to carry out work on their home.

“The current system is not working and the Trinity college proves it and as you drive west you can see it. As you drive west the number of solar panels on roofs diminishes because the wages are not there to sustain it. We are in the middle of a crisis here and a lot more has to be done to get as many people on the first rung of the retrofitting ladder.

“We have to come to a point if we are serious about this green transition then we scrap this pay first and grant later and move to up front funding. People want to retrofit their homes but they cannot afford it so we have to reach out to the credit unions to develop more low interest loans.

“We have to provide support for the west and rural areas and tackle the imbalance. The wealthiest households are gaining the most from this public money and we have to as a committee deal with it,” he said.