West Cork island to lead the way in energy efficiency with new solar-powered homes

Housing association to develop six solar-powered homes on Sherkin Island which will allow tenants to become self-sufficient in energy use

Carbery Housing Association is to develop six solar-powered homes, in conjunction with Cork County Council, on Sherkin Island.

A voluntary housing association hopes to turn an island off the South-West coast into one of the most energy-efficient in the world, kickstarting this with the construction of six new solar-powered homes which should produce enough electricity to make their tenants energy self-sufficient.

Carbery Housing Association (CHA) is to develop six solar-powered homes, in conjunction with Cork County Council, on Sherkin Island. The association hopes it may be able to generate enough energy not only to power their homes themselves but also other homes on the island and even have some electricity left over to sell to the national grid.

The houses, which will be two and three-bed units, will be constructed by a local developer and, on completion, handed over to CHA.

Jose Ospina, who heads the association, said this would be an extension of CHA’s recent successful EU-funded ‘RED WoLF’ Project which allowed it to retrofit some of its housing stock to make them more energy efficient.

The association has previously purchased households from financial institutions to prevent them from evicting tenants who were seriously behind with mortgage payments.

Many of the houses were old and needed energy efficiency upgrades. The tenants stay in the houses and pay rent to CHA.

The Skibbereen-based association currently has 21 homes on its books and is seeking to take on another eight in Cobh, Ballingeary, Youghal, and Cork City.

The system is expected to deliver significant financial savings for tenants while decarbonising their fuel supply and helping combat climate change. Picture: iStock

The RED WoLF system consists of solar PV panels, storage heaters and a battery, all controlled by an algorithm which decides when to draw electricity from the different sources (including the grid), choosing the least carbon-intensive option in any given moment.

The system is expected to deliver significant financial savings for tenants while decarbonising their fuel supply and helping combat climate change. CHA has also received support from the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland to help fund the project.

“Tenants are already seeing a significant drop in their energy bills and they are also benefiting from additional savings on their bill as any unused energy generated is sold back to the [national] grid,” Mr Ospina said.

He added CHA was now “branching out” with the Sherkin project to build energy-efficient houses where they are needed, which in this particular case is hoped will bolster the island’s population.

He said in Luxembourg and Belgium, such schemes as the one planned on Sherkin have led to other householders installing solar panel and hooking up to a communal system of power savings and power generation with unused electricity sold to their respective national grids.

“Our aim would be to hook up other houses on Sherkin Island to the system and eventually make the island self-sufficient,” Mr Ospina said.