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    Elektrofahrzeuge, Solarpaneele und Wärmepumpen konzentrieren sich auf wohlhabende Gebiete Irlands


    Elektrofahrzeuge, Solarpaneele und Wärmepumpen konzentrieren sich auf wohlhabende Gebiete Irlands

    https://www.irishtimes.com/environment/climate-crisis/2026/03/13/green-divide-emerges-with-evs-solar-panels-and-heat-pumps-concentrated-in-affluent-areas/

    Von zainab1900

    View 26 Comments

    26 Kommentare

    1. Rulmeq on

      Once again showing that being poor is one of the most expensive things you can do.

    2. Dannyforsure on

      Gotta to have the capital to invest in these things, if you’re just getting by hard to justify the expense. Nothing unusual about that tbh.

      I’ve seen in other countries people are renting their roofs out but seems like a headache as a business model.

    3. qwerty_1965 on

      Not a surprise but with the falling prices of panels and the grants that bias will reduce. The EV market is changing as manufacturers have copped on and started making cars at lower price points.

    4. Craicriture on

      Not surprising – the grants don’t cover the whole thing and you need access to a fair bit of disposable income to do it.

      Being low income in Ireland also comes with higher costs for things like you’ll see people being sold prepaid electricity plans as ‚cheaper‘ when in reality they’re way more expensive etc etc. Lack of money here often equates to spending more.

    5. AlanOC91 on

      Well most heat pumps these days are only in brand new houses which sell for €400k+ so that’s not suprising. I’ve worked hard the last two years and brought my 1960 built house from an E1 rating to a B1 rating but the only thing I didn’t get was a Heatpump.

      I was quoted 20k minimum to retrofit it and the advice I was getting was 20k min was optimistic.

      I just bought a new boiler instead for 5k but with the price of oil now I wonder if I made a mistake…

    6. North_Stranded on

      My nextdoor neighbours in D5 before I moved out got heat pump and installation for free from gov as they qualified for fuel allowance, many of my neighbours seemed to get this work done and it was probably half and half council and private housing.
      So it’s not only rich people getting these things.

    7. rmc on

      Everyone talking about the government stepping in to cut petrol taxes. Screw that.

      More grants for solar!

    9. Particular-Irishman on

      Was there not an article saying most don’t have even 500 in savings? How do they expect people who can’t save much to afford these upgrades it’s the same with home ownership how do they expect people to buy homes when they’re just scraping by from week to week while costs rise

    10. fuzzfrog on

      Because in general green issues are not a working class issue. There is a reason the greens get votes in Rathgar and not in Darndale.

    11. SeriesDowntown5947 on

      Is this for real. Do you know the costs. Tens of thousands to 100k plus. Depending on what level you are looking at etc. In affluent area I live in its the minority that do this.

    12. itookdhorsetofrance on

      Someone I work on the same organisation had their air to water fail in the last 2 months. €12k to repair.
      How can common people ever afford those running costs

    13. quondam47 on

      And even if it came with a new build, replacing a faulty heat pump is not a cheap option. A new grant was introduced a fortnight ago but that’s €6,500 when the cost of a new system is €10,000 minimum.

      Repair isn’t a really viable option in many cases because even a five year old system will be R-410A gas based which is now banned and parts are both expensive and hard to get so an R32 system is needed. Unfortunately, a new outdoor unit won’t necessarily work with an old indoor unit so the whole whack has to come out.

      A heat pump system is meant to last 15 years but if you lose a compressor or something else goes bang, going back to a €3,000 gas or oil boiler might be the only viable option for a lot of people.

    15. jaywastaken on

      not poor enough for the welfare grants, not rich enough for the retrofit grants.

      I’d also like solar, better insulation and an EV but like most of us I just can’t afford it.

    16. ToysandStuff on

      It also doesn’t help that the government have no specific incentive to uplift the poorest in society. They too depend on an abundance of poor people and keeping them that way. Our entire global endless growth economy society does that

    17. The3rdbaboon on

      Yeah the system is inherently unfair. I save a lot of money because of solar, battery pack and driving an EV. But I’m only in a position to do that because I could afford to buy a nearly new car and have the work done on my house. I’m not sure what the solution is to make it more accessible.

      For a lot of houses that are old you can’t even install a heat pump. I was told I couldn’t, or it would cost so much that it wouldn’t be worth it. Did everything else though and improved the BER rating a lot but it still cost a lot.

    18. DaemonCRO on

      To those that have more will be given (paraphrasing).

      It’s super expensive to be poor.

    19. Big_Cap_2331 on

      Problem is at the moment people on lower incomes are still funding these grants through being taxed on fuel etc but get none of the benefit – effectively getting taxed to fund improvements to wealthier people’s homes and investment properties

    21. exposed_silver on

      A family member bought a new car recently, for a bit more they could have gotten an EV and a better guarantee but they also have a PAYG meter so recharging wouldn’t be so cheap. In the future, I would like to have the cars replaced with EVs and solar panels, then I won’t be worrying about the price of fuel.

      Some people living in apartments or rented accommodation don’t have space to charge EVs and it could take years to buy a house. When everything is getting more expensive, making sensible, long term decisions is not very easy or even possible

    23. yankdevil on

      A lot of media directed at less wealthy people spews a ton of disinformation about all those things. That plays a role too.

      Yes, I spent a lot of money to go fully electric. But some of the steps were inexpensive. Right now a used EV is essentially the same price as a used ICE. Solar panels are expensive but I suspect their payoff period is going to go way down soon enough. Gas prices are going to rocket up and we generate a lot of electricity from gas.

    24. hmmm_ on

      There was a lot of money mis-spent by the previous government subsidising wealthy people to buy Teslas and do up their houses. Meanwhile we still don’t have a reliable national charging grid, and people in apartments can’t charge EVs.

      The current government at least is trying to correct some of these issues, but more needs to be done.

    25. ohmyblahblah on

      Live in a rented terrace house so ev is a no go. Cant get solar panels. Stuck with oil heating and petrol car.

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