A ‘Meitheal’ is a traditional Irish concept; it means a community coming together and sharing effort to get a job done. It might be bringing in a harvest or saving hay – any situation where many hands make light work.
At Mullingar SEC, part of our aim is to help as many people as possible to improve the energy efficiency of their own homes. Installing Solar PV panels is a great way to do that as it means that, for a typical household, a large part of the electricity requirements can be generated on-site. In some cases or at certain times, PV panels will generate more than is required for household needs and this excess can be sold back to the grid. Power generated during daylight hours can be optionally stored in batteries for use after the sun goes down.
We recognise, however, that even with the grants available through SEAI, the up-front costs of installing a system can be daunting for many. To try to help to bring those costs down, we intend to leverage the power of group purchasing by organising a ‘Solar Meitheal’. This works when enough people come together and express interest in purchasing systems that it then becomes worthwhile for the installers to apply substantial discounts. Being part of this Meitheal also will also help by arming you with knowledge to give confidence when dealing with installers and help applying for SEAI grants. This model has already worked elsewhere in the country so we’re confident that we can bring it to Mullingar!
If you’ve been on the fence about committing to a Solar PV installation and you just need a little more incentive to take the last step, why not fill in our form below? This is just an expression of interest and does NOT commit you to anything – if this idea comes to fruition we anticipate that there would be several ’rounds’ of installations so if you’re not in a position to purchase right now, we’ll keep you in the loop for future opportunities.