A new scheme offering households free renewable energy could ease the financial pressure on up to 70,000 struggling homes, according to a social housing body.

The new initiative from EnergyCloud will use surplus renewable energy to heat water cylinders in homes across Ireland – completely free of charge.

The plan is backed by EirGrid, energy suppliers and a range of other stakeholders.

Speaking to Pat Kenny, EnergyCloud co-founder Derek Roddy said that surplus renewable energy is common in Ireland.

“Last night in Ireland - we have a huge amount of wind farms - and at night-time, we had too much energy, too much wind,” he said.

“EirGrid had to send a signal to those wind farms to switch off because we don't have enough demand for that energy last night.”

'Surplus energy'

Mr Roddy said EnergyCloud seeks to tackle the issue by installing a new digital switch into homes, which can be remotely switched on.

“Last night, for example, we would have switched that on as soon as we hit midnight and we knew there was curtailment,” he said.

“We remotely switch on these immersions, the tank fills up, and the device switches off.”

Last night, the surplus energy from the turbines would have meant that 270,000 homes could have had their hot water tanks heated for free.

Currently, the programme is aiming to deliver free hot water to 70,000 of these homes.

‘Fuel Poverty’

Clúid Housing spokesperson Laura McDonnell said: “We provide social housing for residents from the local authorities' housing list.”

“What we're interested in is ensuring that our residents have manageable energy bills, and we're looking at ways to assist them,” she said.

“That’s why we're interested in the EnergyCloud initiative.

“Last year, over half a million people were suffering in fuel poverty, so that means they're spending 10% of their income on their energy bills.

“So, with our residents, there's a huge number that would be impacted by that.”

‘How does it work?’

Ms McDonnell said Clúid Housing currently have 250 tenants participating in the initiative and is increasing the number to 1000.

“Our residents that are involved in the pilots are really excited about it because they have an app on their phone that will get a message when it's going to be windy that night,” she said.

“There'll be notified in advance: ‘Watch out looks like it's going to be windy tonight – so prepare’.

“If they see that wind is coming in, they can switch off their immersion because they know they're going to get a free hot water tank.”

Mr Roddy said that while EirGrid is currently about helping people in fuel poverty, “as a country, as a nation, as a globe, we need to figure out how we do this going forward.”

“The good news is we have a stakeholder team sitting around the table that represents all of those folks, and we will figure out what's the right way to do this.”