Many new and existing buildings will be required to install charging points for electric vehicles under new regulations.
Darragh O’Brien, the housing minister, signed the EU regulations into law yesterday and said that the infrastructure requirements would “accelerate the uptake of electric vehicles”. The government has set out an ambitious of target of having almost one million electric vehicles on Irish roads by 2030.
New non-residential buildings with more than ten parking spaces must include at least one electric vehicle recharging point. They must also have infrastructure to upgrade one in five parking spaces with a charging point. Both of these measures also apply to existing buildings undergoing major renovation.
Building automation and control systems must be installed in non-residential buildings with heating and air-conditioning systems with an output of more than 290 kilowatts by the end of 2025.
The Department of Housing said that installing the charging points would add about €100 to the build cost of an apartment. There would be exemptions for small and medium enterprises.
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The Department of Transport said electric vehicles were “a prominent mitigation measure in the climate action plan and Ireland has set an ambitious target of 936,000 EVs on our roads by 2030”. It said that “an effective public charging network” would help to “sustain and service the expected growth” of EVs on Irish roads.
There are 800 publicly accessible charging points for electric vehicles in Ireland, including 100 fast chargers, mainly found on national routes. The majority of these have been installed by the ESB through its eCars programme, with some public chargers provided by local authorities, retail outlets and private companies.
The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland’s public charge point scheme also provides funding to local authorities, with grants of up to €5,000 per charger, to support the development of on-street public chargers for residents. The scheme has been in place since September 2019 and will continue throughout 2021.
Ciarán Cuffe, the Green Party MEP, said that the new regulations were a step towards a “modal shift” towards more environmentally sustainable lifestyles. “It’s essential that we have proper charging infrastructure for electric vehicles,” he said. “What we really want to ensure is that buildings will generate electricity and that electricity will be available to the owners to charge their vehicles. That’s really the holy grail of what we want to achieve.”