New homes across Ireland will be required to install electric vehicle (EV) recharging infrastructure.
The new regulations – announced by the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Darragh O’Brien, – will reportedly support action on climate change, improve air quality, and reduced dependence on fossil fuels.
The regulations will apply to:
New dwelling houses with a parking space located within the boundary of the dwelling
New multi-unit residential buildings
Multi-unit residential buildings undergoing major renovation where the car park is located inside or adjacent to the building, and where renovations include the car park or the electrical infrastructure of the building or car park
There are currently over 45,000 EVs registered on Irish roads. The Climate Action Plan commits to increasing the fleet of EVs and low-emitting vehicles to 945,000 in order to meet the required level of emissions reduction by 2030. Transport accounts for approximately 20% of Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions.
The Government’s Climate Action Plan commits to ensuring Ireland’s buildings’ regulatory regime requires the installation of EV recharging infrastructure. This requires the introduction of regulations to provide for the installation of EV recharging infrastructure in certain dwellings and buildings where parking spaces are within their boundaries or adjacent to them.
Commenting on the EV regulations, Minister O’Brien said: “The regulations will help accelerate the uptake of Electric Vehicles, creating and enabling infrastructure to achieve the Government commitment of nearly 1 million Electric Vehicles by 2030. We are sending a strong signal of Ireland’s commitment to the clean energy transition, as the building sector has a vast potential to contribute to a carbon-neutral and competitive economy.
“This new requirement for Electric Vehicle recharging infrastructure will add to the Nearly Zero Energy Building Standards already in place for all new buildings and previous Electric Vehicles recharging infrastructure regulations introduced last year. It will add to our action against climate change in the area of emissions from residential buildings construction.”
Furthermore, Minister O’Brien has also signed new regulations to facilitate the roll-out of district heating. District heating can play an important role in improving energy efficiency and reducing emissions. The purpose of the District Heating Regulations is to support more district heating and cooling in residential buildings.
The regulations are a partial transposition of Article 15.4 of the Renewable Energy Directive to permit the Building Regulation minimum requirements for renewable energy in Nearly Zero Energy Buildings to be fulfilled through efficient district heating and cooling using a significant share of renewable energy and waste heat and cold.