Ireland’s solar market is continuing to mature rapidly, according to Solar Ireland’s 2026 annual report which also identified the emergence of a ‘duck curve’ and called for more energy storage to balance out the 2.7 GW of solar now connected to the grid.
As of May of this year, Ireland reached 2.7 GW of connected solar capacity, according to the Scale of Solar 2026 report.
The latest performance report on the Irish solar market by Solar Ireland was launched at the association’s annual Solar Ireland conference and trade show event in Dublin on 18 June, showing promising results for the small nation’s PV market.
Of the 2.7 GW figure, more than 1.5 GW is from the utility-scale segment. Small-scale generation in residential and commercial settings are also performing very well. Microgeneration exceeds 800 MW, while more than 190,000 homes and businesses have solar panels. This data comes from ESB Networks’ grid connection and capacity data as of May 31, 2026.
The government has supported thousands of domestic and commercial solar rooftop installations, and the Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment Darragh O’Brien TD confirmed at the Solar Ireland conference that the existing grant for the installation of rooftop solar panels will remain in place for the lifetime of the current government. The grant is worth up to €1,800.As Solar Ireland CEO Ronan Power said in his foreword to the report, Ireland’s solar market is “increasingly defined by delivery” instead of solely by ambition.
