![\"Graphic](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0024433d-614.jpg\"\/)
\nNumber of PV Solar Grant Applications (Source: Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland)<\/p>\n
Purchases of rooftop solar panels by Irish homeowners have surged since the start of the war on Iran, with both the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) and the trade body Solar Ireland reporting sharp increases since the beginning of March.<\/p>\n
The SEAI has said that it received nearly twice as many grant applications for Photovoltaic Solar Panels in March as it did for the same month last year.<\/p>\n
In the first three months of this year, there were more than 10,000 grant applications, up from just over 6,000 in the same period last year.<\/p>\n
Last month was the first month that the SEAI received more than 4,000 PV solar grant applications.<\/p>\n
The SEAI’s Director of National Retrofit, Ciaran Byrne, said there have been 13,500 applications so far this year.<\/p>\n
“To compare it with pretty much the same period of last year, and in fact, first four months last year, with 8,900 applications in.<\/p>\n
“And the previous year, the comparative period was about 7,300 applications,” he said.<\/p>\n
“So over the three year period, we’re heading towards a doubling of the application for the first period of the year.”<\/p>\n
Solar Ireland is also reporting a spike in interest from householders.<\/p>\n
Solar Ireland CEO, Ronan Power, said that in the residential market, there is an increase of over 30% in the purchase or commitment to buy in the domestic solar market.<\/p>\n
“In some instances,” he said, “we are seeing over 100% increase in inquiries.<\/p>\n
“I think people are generally worried about the energy crisis or the impact of energy at the moment.”<\/p>\n
\nNumber of PV Solar Grant Applications (Source: Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland)<\/p>\n
Michael Flaherty, a resident of Leixlip, Co Kildare, decided to make the move to renewable energy by installing solar panels due to the recent oil crisis.<\/p>\n
“I hope to save a lot of money,” he told RT\u00c9 News.<\/p>\n
Mr Flaherty is one of may customers signing up for solar panels, according to Eamon Murphy of installer Activ8 Solar Energy.<\/p>\n
He said that the number of orders coming in this Spring was not unprecedented due to a similar demand when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began in 2022.<\/p>\n
“We’re starting to see that rise again,” he said.<\/p>\n
“So ordinarily, around this time, we would see some seasonality, where from March onwards, and when the clocks change and so on, people do start to look out the window and think maybe solar is a good idea.<\/p>\n
“But we’ve definitely seen, probably, double the interest that we would normally see at this time of year.”<\/p>\n
The SEAI has also reported a big increase in the number of applications after Minister for Energy Darragh O’Brien announced increased grants for some home energy upgrade measures and new stand alone grants for windows and doors.<\/p>\n
There were 30,000 grant applications to the SEAI in the first quarter of this year, an increase of around 185%.<\/p>\n
The minister said that his department and the SEAI are looking at the plug in solar panels which can be connected directly to domestic electricity circuits, to see if regulatory and safety issues which have prevented their approval for use in Ireland can be overcome.<\/p>\n
It is a solution that could allow people living in apartments access solar power.<\/p>\n
The T\u00e1naiste has said that the Government wants to make it easier for people to be able to help in terms of their own energy situation.<\/p>\n
He added: “If this crisis goes on into the winter, the energy crisis is very different in the winter to the summer.<\/p>\n
“We will look at how we can help then and the variety of ways. But as part of that in the mix has to be how we help people help themselves, in terms of their own energy independence, in terms of what they can do in their own homes.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Purchases of rooftop solar panels by Irish homeowners have surged since the start of the war on Iran,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":412202,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-412201","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=412201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412201\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/412202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}