A new €26 million grant scheme to help businesses, schools and voluntary organisations to convert their heating systems to "green" technology, has been launched by Sustainable Energy Ireland.
The initiative aims to generate savings of up to 160,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions a year, through providing grants for heating systems which use renewable energy. Business or community premises which instal these systems will be able to claim up to 30 per cent of the total cost involved.
The scheme, which is being launched by Sustainable Energy Ireland, will also contribute towards the cost of feasibility studies for specific projects.
It will cover grants for woodchip- and wood-pellet boilers, solar-heating systems and geothermal pumps.
It will be the first time small firms and community group buildings will be eligible for such a grant scheme, which was previously limited to large scale projects.
Announcing the scheme yesterday, the Minister for Communications and Natural Resources, Noel Dempsey, said the scheme would be of particular benefit to the voluntary and community sector.
"Voluntary and community groups in particular, contribute such a wealth of services to the wider community, and are often operating on extremely marginal budgets," he said.
"By expanding the scope of the programme we are giving these groups access to cheaper, cleaner energy."
The chief executive of Sustainable Energy Ireland, David Taylor, said the new scheme would contribute towards meeting the Government's target of having 5 per cent of Ireland's energy produced by renewable sources by 2010.