Landowners seek clarity on solar tariffs and policy

Farmers could benefit from using solar PV energy, but are slow to invest further without clarity on feed-in tariffs and the Government’s grid connection policy, the IFA says.

IFA president, Joe Healy, said while up to 15,000 acres of farmland in Ireland are under some form of solar contract, questions remain to be addressed on the feed-in-tariff to be applied to solar energy, grid connection, farm-scale projects, and community participation in solar development projects.

Addressing IFA’s solar seminar in Portlaoise, Mr Healy said: “The European Commission will next week set out Ireland’s emission reduction targets to be delivered by the year 2030 for the non-ETS sector, which includes farming.