Our Goal: 10 Solar Powered Homes Before the New Year
With the ever increasing price of energy, Greystones and Delgany Sustainable Energy Community is excited to launch our “Solar Meitheal 2022” initiative for homeowners and landlords who are interested in installing Solar PV.
Restricted to Greystones & Delgany homes and businesses only, and limited to a maximum of 10 participants, those involved will benefit from free advice by our industry expert, a competitive quotation from our solar tender, and through the pooling of purchasing power, a potential economies of scale price discount.
Meitheal is an old Irish term that describes how people come together to help one another out. The meitheal was a powerful concept in years gone by, neighbours would join together, particularly at harvest time to make large tasks easier to achieve as a group rather than as individuals. The concept of a Meitheal can also be applied to our SEC’s mission of making our community sustainable and carbon-free.
With a 25-30 year lifespan and a payback period usually within 8-9 years, solar provides homes and businesses with a guaranteed return on investment and many years of free electricity. Supported by the latest grants and technologies available, homeowners can now avail of this clean renewable power source to help meet their needs.
This initial phase has brought together 10 Greystones/Delgany residents who wished to install solar PV panels on their homes or businesses in 2023. As of early 2023 are well underway with our 10 homes from our 2022 cohort nearing completion of installs. Thanks to everyone who made this considerable investment, commitment, and climate action.
If you are interested in joining our 2023 cohort please complete the form below. We will contact you first when we formally kick off the next campaign.
FAQ for GDSEC Solar Meitheal Participants
Our more general FAQ on Solar PV in Ireland can be found here.
Greystones & Delgany Sustainable Energy Community (GDSEC) is a subgroup of Greystones Tidy Towns and is a registered SEC with the SEAI (Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland). Staffed by volunteers under the mentorship of an officially registered SEC technical advisor, Simon Whelan (page 37), our mission is to explore options for reducing our community’s carbon emissions and increase the energy efficiency and sustainability of our buildings, transport and other aspects of our lives.
With this in mind, we launched the “Solar Meitheal” initiative. Through our advisory and administrative support role, we aim to help homeowners and businesses who are interested in installing Solar PV to (a) understand the technology, (b) arrive at a solar PV system configuration that suits their needs, and (c) get a competitive quote from a top solar installer.
- Your home or business lies within the Greystones & Delgany catchment area
- You have a minimum of 10m2 of usable roof space for solar panel install
- Your roof is south, east or west-facing (or a combination of these) and not shaded by nearby trees or buildings for the majority of the day
- You are in a position to finance your desired solar PV system configuration
- Provides free and independent advice as well as step-by-step guidance in helping you decide on your ideal solar PV configuration
- Through our combined Solar PV Request for Offer, the programme will provide a competitive quotation from a top qualified installer
- Through the pooling of purchasing power, the programme hopes to provide the added benefit of a potential economies of scale price discount
To figure out how much electricity your home or businesses uses annually, simply add up your kWh usage on all your electricity utility bills that cover one full year (usually 6 bimonthly bills).
On each bill, the amount of energy you’ve used in the billing period will be labelled as “consumption” or “usage” and listed in “units” or “kWh”, (note: 1 unit = 1kWh). Write down the number of kWh (or units) used per bill and then add up all kilowatt hours across all the electricity bills within the year to get your annual kWh electricity consumption total.
At no stage will GDSEC engage in a contract or exchange monies with participants, we are only here in a voluntary support role.
Please note that to avoid the possibility of participants being scammed by imitators, the GDSEC will be your only point of contact until after the formal email introduction by the SEC between yourself and the installer. No monies or contracts will be asked for or exchanged with an installer until after a formal email introduction by the SEC between yourself and the installers. The SEC will only contact you via our official email account info@greystonesgreenenergy.ie or stonessec@gmail.com.
Yes, we will only seek bids from installers carrying full public liability insurance and are approved and vetted installers with the SEAI.
The SEC will seek a Request for Offer from 3 installers seeking the best balance of price, service, and schedule. The SEC will contact you directly once a selection is made to properly transition you to the installer’s account manager. You will be dealing with the SEC until this handoff occurs. Your complete PV installation contract and payments will be made directly with the installer.
Please note that participants can leave the programme at any time without penalty, prior to entering into a contract directly with the installer. Since your interest does factor into bidding and costing for the Solar Meitheal group cohort we ask that you contact us immediately if you are no longer interested.
Greystones & Delgany SEC Solar PV Meitheal Interest Form
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