Fingal County Council has become the first local authority in Ireland to partner with EnergyCloud to provide free hot water to homes using surplus renewable energy.
The pilot project with Fingal County Council’s Housing Department is supported by SSE Airtricity and will see homes in Swords equipped to benefit from free hot water via EnergyCloud with the installation of an EnergyCloud smart device. Once installed, the devices will use surplus renewable energy, which would otherwise be wasted, to heat immersion tanks.
Cllr Ian Carey said:
“This is a really positive and innovative way of getting energy to people who may be at risk of fuel poverty and I’m glad that Fingal are leading the way on this.
“This puts the households that need it first in line to receive the benefits of surplus renewable energy. It’s great to see this rolling out in Swords.”
Speaking at the launch in Swords, Co. Dublin, Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage Darragh O’Brien TD said: “I am delighted to be able to officially launch this exciting initiative between EnergyCloud, Fingal County Council and SSE Airtricity. Earlier I got to meet with a family who are now part of the EnergyCloud project, and they are excited to be able to benefit from this partnership between Fingal County Council and EnergyCloud. What is clear to me is that EnergyCloud is a win-win-win. It is good for families in helping to address energy costs. It helps reduce reliance on imported fossil fuels by using renewable energy that would otherwise be wasted. And it helps Fingal County Council in managing their housing stock and with their ambitious retrofitting objectives.”
Robert Burns, Director for Housing and Community Development with Fingal County Council said: “Along with Minister Darragh O’Brien, SSE Airtricity and others we visited the first installation with EnergyCloud in Swords today and we are looking forward to assessing the results of this pilot programme. Our hope is that it will help reduce the energy bills for tenants by utilising otherwise wasted zero carbon renewable energy. We have already seen that it is a simple one hour retrofit of our existing Council homes and there is no cost to the resident and no cost to the local authority to participate in this project with EnergyCloud. We will be looking to see if it is scalable and if it will compliment the ambitious retrofit programme that we are already rolling out.”
