From the windswept Aran Islands to the traditional Gaeltacht of Connemara, and the bustling student City of Tribes, Galway is a county which contains multitudes of different locales for solar panels.
Home to one of the largest urban centres in Ireland, alongside some of its most picturesque villages, our solar installers can help homeowners of any stripe to invest in renewable energy today.
1,400 homes in Galway had solar panels installed in 2023 with grant support, and that figure is growing rapidly, with this year’s numbers on course to exceed it greatly.
Solar Panel Adoption Rates in Galway
Galway has the third highest adoption rate for solar panels in Ireland, with 934 homes getting solar panels installed with the help of SEAI grants in the first six months of 2024 alone. These grants of up to €2,100 significantly decrease the upfront installation costs.
The solar panel installations carried out with the aid of the SEAI grant in this year alone already account for 26.6% of all domestic solar panels installed since 2015.
Galway Climate Conditions
Located on the wild Atlantic coastline, Galway is typically better known for its frequent rain than sunny skies, but solar panels are still more than capable of thriving.
Galway Sunshine
Winters in Galway are far from the brightest in Ireland, but the west coast still gets plenty of sunshine in the summer months which more than makes up for the lack. See how many hours of sunshine Galway can expect to receive each month of the year.
Galway Towns
Galway is home to one of Ireland’s few large urban centres in Galway City, along with multiple other towns of vastly varying sizes, from the larger towns inland to the smaller hamlets on the Connemara Coast.
There are few towns in Galway which match the size of those in the east and southeast of the country, but there are plenty of urban and rural settlements which solar installers serve.
| Town Name | Population |
| Ballinasloe | 6,662 |
| Claregalway | 1,632 |
| Clifden | 1,259 |
| Loughrea | 6,322 |
| Portumna | 1,690 |
| Tuam | 9,647 |
| Galway City | 85,910 |
| Oughterard | 1,846 |
| Oranmore | 5,819 |
| Headford | 1,235 |
| Moycullen | 2,279 |
| Clarinbridge | 905 |
| Barna | 2,336 |
| Athenry | 4,603 |
| Carraroe | 781 |
| Craughwell | 1,034 |
Galway Housing
Galway is a fast growing area in the west of Ireland with a wide range of housing from widely different time periods and levels of energy efficiency.
The BER registry only includes a fraction of the county’s total housing stock, but can provide valuable insights into how energy efficient homes are in Galway.
In comparison with the majority of counties in the west of Ireland and Connacht, Galway City and County both have a significantly greater percentage of buildings with an A or B rating, and the average age of the housing stock in the registry is also several years less.
These more modern buildings will be able to become even more energy efficient with the addition of solar panels in Galway, further improving property values in a high demand area.
| Area | Energy Rating | Total Housing Stock | Avg Age | ||||||
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | |||
| Galway City | 1,877 | 2,253 | 7,133 | 4,505 | 1,689 | 751 | 563 | 18,772 | 27 |
| Galway County | 4,936 | 6,283 | 15,258 | 8,975 | 4,039 | 1,795 | 3,590 | 44,877 | 30 |
Data from Domestic BER Register up to the end of Q1 2024. Source: CSO.ie
