All new homes in England will be required to come with solar panels by 2027 under new plans being put forward by the Labour government.

The UK government is planning to make it legally required for homebuilders to install solar panels on new homes within the next two years.

This is part of the Future Homes Standard, which is due to be published in the coming months.

This is one area where the UK government is moving ahead of Ireland in incentivising the adoption of solar power, as it currently lags behind in terms of direct financial support.

Ireland currently incentivises existing homes to install solar panels through an SEAI grant worth up to €1,800 to assist with the cost. However, this is only available to properties built and occupied prior to 2021.

There are currently no grants or government incentives for new homes to install solar panels, nor any legal requirement to do so at this time.

The EU Solar Energy Strategy has set legally binding targets for its member states to begin implementing mandatory solar PV installations for new buildings in the coming years.

All new public and commercial buildings with a “useful floor area” larger than 250m² must install solar panels by 2026, and all existing public and commercial buildings with the same space requirements must do so by 2027.

All new homes will be required to install solar panels by 2029 under these EU rules. It is up to the Irish government to now put forward legislation to bring this into effect.

Bringing these rules into effect sooner rather than later could assist greatly with the goal of installing 8GW worth of solar power capacity nationwide by 2030.

The Irish government should consider following the UK’s example and setting an earlier target date for bringing in this requirement for new homes, which would address a gap in residential solar installations.