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Your solar-PV array, even without the help of domestic storage, will take a significant bite out of your power bill using feed-in tariffs during spring and summer (automatically selling power to the grid). File pictures
The forecast for 2027 is that it could be the biggest year for solar-photovoltaic (solar-PV) domestic installations in Ireland yet. Budget 2027 has set the SEAI-managed grant towards a solar-PV system at a maximum figure of €1,800 for domestic users. 
The Government has also locked in the 0% VAT on supply and installation of solar systems, introduced new, improved eligibility criteria for free solar installation for those on certain welfare payments (with grants of up to €9,000), and brought back the SEAI-managed battery grant, this time at €600. 
What this means for most households is a maximum solar-PV grant award of €2,400 if you include the versatility of a battery. If you have a suitable roof, it’s time to investigate a grant-aided investment in renewable energy next year. The results could be life-altering.
So what’s the story with feed-in tariffs? 
First of all, I have to talk about the feed-in-tariff drama that exploded across Irish media over the past three months. The misunderstanding (largely created online) was prompted by changes for Dutch solar-PV users in the summer of 2026. 
One of the great attractions of solar-PV is that when the system sends excess solar gain back to the grid, it appears as credit on the household’s bi-monthly bill. 

Budget 2027 raised the tax disregard for the value of these units recorded by the supplier on customers’ invoices from €400 to €600 (before it has to be declared to Revenue and is taxed). Feed-in-tariffs (termed the export-rate) really matter for solar-PV savings.
Even if you’re out all day at work — the feed-in-tariff rate from your supplier allows you to build credit on your bill on brighter days. If nothing is running bar the fridge, any power from the roof or ground-mounted array not going to cycle the system, fill a domestic battery or heat the water with a water-diverter, automatically goes back to the grid. 

This is a win of 15c/kWh to 19.5c/kWh depending on your supply package. In the high season (June/July/August), this credit can make a good dent in your invoice even utilising a small solar-PV array once you have the necessary smart meter.
There’s currently no declaration by the Government to indicate that this situation will change. The Clean Export Guarantee (CEG), operated by the CRU, is untouched, and feed-in tariffs will not be scrapped. 
The CEG ensures excess kWh units returned to the grid from a domestic solar-PV array are rewarded by a market-led buyback rate in the form of credit on the user’s power bill. The only caveats here are that the price paid for the kWhs may drop (some suppliers have eked down their c/kWh rates). 
Tell us more about dynamic pricing
The imposition of new “dynamic pricing” on export rates may also take a toll on the c/kWh price offered by suppliers. I’m guessing we’ll see from next year. The Netherlands had a slightly different structure for paying domestic solar-PV users for their excess power. From January 2027, the Dutch government has changed the form in which these payments are handled, introducing “feed-in-fees” similar to ours. Otherwise, this issue is irrelevant to your going ahead with solar-PV installation or not.

Building credit on your bill during the summer can potentially reduce your first winter bi-monthly bill at the very least. It’s an energy piggybank for the darkest months of the year. 
The level to which you can build credit relies on the efficiency of your system (largely down to its aspect and position), the size of the array in kWp (the number of panels on the roof or on a ground-mounted array) and the strategic use of a well-sized domestic solar-PV battery.

What about batteries?
I get asked about batteries more than I do about the sizing or solar-PV arrays. Should you get one for a new system in 2027 or add one on? Well, it depends. What is your goal with your system? A solar system sized to the household that contributes to the kWh needs of the home from March to September will provide significant savings in both free power and bill credit. 
However, during the short days of winter, with a modest solar-PV system, covering the power demands of the home becomes a challenge. Many users with systems in the 2.7kWp to 4kWp range will discount their solar collection from late October to mid-February, when the solar gain finally ticks up.

Batteries make a difference to a system’s performance year-round. You cannot run the house off the roof 24/7 without a battery even in mid-July, but you can stack up feed-in-tariff credit that will offset the cost of that night-time usage. 
If you go for a battery, it not only stores whatever gain you can scrape from our miserable dark short winter days, but, as a standalone device, it can also download cheaper overnight kWhs directly from the grid. These are stored in the battery as DC and converted by your inverter to AC you can use in the home the following day. This is a practice known as load-shifting. 
Think about those EV-charging hours offering three-to-five hours at a price as low as 10c/kWh (including VAT). We download these kWhs, then use them to serve the house from the battery during the course of our active hours in the home, including the evening if that’s when your power demand surges and grid prices peak.
If the solar-PV system on the roof is larger (5kWp or more), set at a perfect angle and aspect, with no shadowing, and facing directly south, your power might be coming at least in part from the battery and the roof during the day, even in the depths of winter. 
Super-systems
Some homeowners install oversized systems featuring multiple domestic batteries with consistent year-round gain, EV car-charging and storage from the roof and the grid in mind.

With one of these super-systems, it’s entirely possible to be off-grid for the greater part of 24 hours in winter, discounting the spike for kettles and electric showers, where the inverter’s output limit cannot drop enough power to meet the kW demand (electric showers can be as hungry as 10kW). 
Some solar enthusiasts download cheap kWhs of power from the grid during the night all year, pushing it back to the grid for a higher price the following day (in credit to their bill). This practice is perfectly legal and offered by all power suppliers following the CEG structure for microgenerators. Watch out for tiered charges if you use more than 1000kWh from the EV-charging period over the period of two months between charging your car and your house batteries. It’s not capped, but suppliers, including Energia, do raise the price after what they deem fair use.
With a modest, highly affordable system or an E/W system, we are rarely gaining enough power from the array to sell power back to the grid in a meaningful way from October to early February. 
There might be some brighter days; some power will be returned to the house and a fraction to the grid, but it’s not the multiple kWh per day of credit you would have enjoyed in summer. 

Even when the day is fine, the hours of collection are slashed, and the arc of the sun is low and (hitting your panels at a different angle) less efficient in terms of solar collection. I’m happy on a brighter day to run a 2kW blow heater in my office with intermittent help from the roof array and a small percentage of power from the battery. 
We cycle cheaper kWhs from an overnight download back into our daytime usage from November to March. Why don’t I do this all year? Cycling the battery twice over in 24 hours shortens its life, and my battery is already seven years old. In summer, the daylight tops my battery right up to dusk.
Approach and installation
Solar gain might be passive, but your approach to the installation and the way you might use that gain or even downloading from the grid — well, that should be a lively conversation. It’s up to you and your supplier to tailor a system that suits your site, expectations and budget. Talk to the installer about all these variables — aspect, batteries, load-shifting, and feed-in tariffs. Explore what priority these features and practises could play in the design of your system for performance 365 days of the year.

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