109 new electric cars bought in 2019
IN 2019 there were just 109 new electric vehicles registered in Wexford.
This is despite grants of up to €5,000 being available for those purchasing Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV) and Plugin Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV) in the county.
Those grants saw the purchasers of those 109 vehicles receive €490,507 between them, money which came from the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI).
In addition to those 109 vehicles, a further 75 electric vehicle home chargers were installed in the county, the cost subsidised by €43,976 from the SEAI.
As well as providing incentives for those who choose to buy an electric or hybrid vehicle, the SEAI also offers home energy grants to make homes more energy efficient.
In 2019 it gave grants totalling €360,328 to 334 homes in the county. This money was spread across insulation grants, heat pump system grants, solar water heating grants, solar electricity grants and heating controls grants.
The SEAI also provided free upgrades for 164 poor energy homes in Wexford in 2019, with a total of €1,354,973 distributed between them.
A further seven Wexford homes received deep retrofits last year - the deep retrofit of a home means carrying out multiple energy upgrades all at once to achieve a BER of A-rating.
Small to medium enterprises (SME) in the county received €13,089 in lighting grants and €65,872.14 in dairy grants from the SEAI.
Overall, the Irish Government invested €140 million in sustainable energy actions in 2019 with 24,700 homeowners, 4,700 car owners, and more than 800 businesses using less energy and having lower energy bills as a result.
The SEAI estimate that 2.5 million tonnes of CO2 will be avoided because of the measures implemented in 2019.
Discussing the SEAI initiatives and their importance to both the environment and the economy, William Walsh, CEO of SEAI said: ‘2019 was a very significant year for the sustainable energy transition and climate action. There was a massive rise in advocacy for greater action, most notably in the form of the school’s climate strikes, which happened at a global scale.
‘Domestically, 2019 saw the publication of the Government’s Climate Action Plan which commits to more than 180 actions across all sectors of society and the economy. We take great pride in the truly transformative effect which our programmes have on the homeowners, communities and businesses with whom we engage, helping them to lower their energy costs and play a vital role in our clean energy transition.’