Private Wires: A Missed Opportunity for Community Energy in Ireland

Ireland is in the middle of a rapid energy transition and transformation. Wind power generation is at record levels and solar capacity is surging. A new 18.9 billion euro investment in grid infrastructure is underway. And with the Private Wires Bill 2026 published in December 2025, the country is taking a landmark step by opening electricity infrastructure ownership to private developers for the first time. This is real progress in decarbonisation of the grid.

At Tipperary Energy Agency, we welcome this Bill.

But we also see a gap in its  permitted use cases, one that deserves attention and more importantly, is a  resilience strengthening opportunity. The door is now open for large industry, developers and corporate energy users. Renewable Energy Communities, particularly community solar projects it is not quite open yet.

The Bill is currently being drafted. There is still a possibility to get this right. This article is TEA’s perspective towards available options. This is informed by years of frontline experience through the EU LIFE-funded Power-Ecom project and grounded in a conviction that community energy is a central pillar of Ireland’s energy future.

The current global situation makes this decarbonisation even more urgent. Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine has kept European energy markets on edge for four years now, pushing up gas prices and exposing how vulnerable import-dependent countries truly are. And just as Europe began to stabilise, the conflict in Iran has sent oil and gas prices climbing again, with the EU’s own Commissioner for Climate warning that without energy security, there can be no broader security. Ireland imports almost 80% of its energy. That dependence is not just an environmental problem. It is an economic and a national security one. Building out locally owned, community-anchored renewable energy is one of the most direct and lasting responses available to us.

Ireland’s Energy Transformation

The story of Irish renewable energy over the past decade is remarkable. Renewable energy now account for over 40% of Ireland’s electricity generation. That is up from virtually nothing in the early 1990s. Ireland ranks third globally for installed wind capacity per capita. Solar has surpassed 2GW. Battery storage has arrived on the grid. A new UK interconnector came online in 2025 with a French one due in 2026.

The ambitions ahead are equally bold. The Climate Action Plan targets 22GW of installed renewable capacity by 2030, including 8GW of solar and at least 5GW of offshore wind. Ireland has the wind, the coastline and, increasingly, the policy intent to become a genuine clean energy leader.

The challenge is that Ireland’s overall renewable share across all energy use, covering heat and transport as well as electricity, sits at around 5.8% of total final consumption. The EU average is 12.7%. Reaching the EU target of 43% renewables across all sectors by 2030 is a steep climb from here. But the opportunity is just as significant. There is enormous untapped potential in Irish communities and the Private Wires Bill, with one targeted addition, could begin to unlock it.

Europe’s Community Energy Boom

Across the EU, community energy has become a genuine force in the clean energy transition. The EU’s Clean Energy Package in 2019 created binding frameworks for Renewable Energy Communities and Citizen Energy Communities, giving communities a legal right to own generation, share electricity and participate in energy markets on equal footing with commercial operators.

The results speak for themselves. By November 2025, the EU’s 10th State of the Energy Union report recorded more than 8,000 energy communities in operation across Europe. Germany, Denmark, Austria and the Netherlands have decades-long traditions of community co-operatives owning wind turbines and solar farms. These projects generate local wealth, reduce household energy bills and build genuine public support for the energy transition. Greece passed legislation enabling energy communities back in 2018. France, Portugal, Lithuania, Estonia, Italy and Slovenia have all followed with their own enabling frameworks.

Ireland’s is on a unique pathway. The SEAI already supports over 900 Sustainable Energy Communities across the country. The Renewable Electricity Support Scheme includes specific provisions for community-led projects. And Tipperary itself has Templederry, Ireland’s first fully community-owned 4.6 MW capacity wind farm. It has been generating clean energy and community dividends since 2013. It is a proof of concept for what is possible. And Templederry did not stop there. It became the seed of Community Power, Ireland’s first community-owned electricity supplier. Community Power buys renewable electricity from community and citizen-owned generators and sells it directly to customers around Ireland. It is a genuinely innovative model, one that demonstrates how community energy can move beyond a single project and become a functioning market actor. It exists today because a group of people in Tipperary decided to own their energy future. That spirit is exactly what the Private Wires Bill should be unlocking at scale.

Through the POWER-E-COM project, a 2023 to 2026 EU LIFE Programme initiative, Tipperary Energy Agency works alongside Templederry Community Power and partner organisations from Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, Slovenia and Spain. Within that project, Ireland is formally classified as a frontrunner country in the development of energy community frameworks. That is a recognition worth building on. When the regulatory environment is right, communities in Ireland mobilise quickly, invest locally and deliver results that no commercial developer could replicate. The ingredients for community energy leadership are already here. The legislative gateway is the missing piece. This experience is well documented. A September 2025 report by the National Economic and Social Council, ‘Energy Communities in Ireland: Progress, Challenges and Potential,’ found that while Ireland has a firm policy foundation, the pace of development of Renewable Energy Communities has been slower than in other European countries. Persistent barriers identified include grid access costs, access to financing, administrative burden and reliance on unpaid volunteers.

What the Private Wires Bill Does and Does Well

The Private Wires Bill is very ambitious. For the first time, it allows private developers to own and operate electricity lines in specific circumstances. The four permitted use cases are practical, commercially meaningful and carefully constructed including :

Use Case 1 (Licence): A generation source or battery storage connecting directly to a customer or another electricity undertaking. This opens up the corporate Power Purchase Agreement market and gives renewable developers a new route to market where grid access is constrained.

Use Case 2 (Permission): Multiple generation or storage technologies, potentially from different legal entities, sharing a single grid connection point. This is already standard practice across much of the EU and has been long overdue in Ireland.

Use Case 3 (Local authority): Private electricity lines in public spaces for on-street EV charging, authorised by local authorities. A sensible, proportionate response to a real infrastructure challenge.

Use Case 4 (Permission): A self-supplying customer sharing electricity with a directly neighbouring premises, without crossing third-party land. Useful for businesses and campuses with on-site generation.

Together, these four use cases will unlock investment, accelerate renewable deployment and ease pressure on a constrained national grid. They are a strong foundation. The question is whether we can build one more storey on top.

The Community Energy Opportunity: One More Use Case

Here is the gap. A Renewable Energy Community, for example a local co-operative group, a cluster of farmers or small community with a community solar project, that wants to generate clean electricity and deliver it via a private wire to its members does not fit within any of the four permitted use cases. The closest match is Use Case 4, but that is limited to one self-supplying customer and one neighbouring premises, without crossing third-party land. A community wind farm supplying a village hall, a school and a cluster of local homes simply cannot operate under this framework as it stands.

The General Scheme does acknowledge this. It notes that a future review, due within ten years of enactment, could explore a more flexible regime for renewable energy communities. That commitment is welcome. But given Ireland’s 2030 targets and the genuine readiness of communities to act right now there is a strong case for moving sooner rather than later. The 2026 Oireachtas process is the right moment.

A fifth use case, designed specifically for RECs as defined under EU law, would allow community energy groups to apply for a proportionate private wires permission to deliver electricity to their members within a defined geographic area. The technical safeguards in the Bill, covering safety standards, grid compatibility and mapping obligations, would apply in full. What would change is the permissions process itself, which should be proportionate to the non-commercial, community-based nature of the applicant rather than replicating a full commercial licensing regime. It is what the EU’s Clean Energy Package directives envisage. It is what Germany and Denmark have delivered for years.

Learnings from Power-Ecom

Working on Power-Ecom has given Tipperary Energy Agency a practical, ground-level view of what makes community energy succeed and where it gets stuck. Across six European countries, the pattern is consistent. Communities that succeed are those with a clear, proportionate regulatory pathway. They do not need to be shielded from regulation. They need regulation that was designed with them in mind.

In Ireland, the journey/process from initial community interest to a live project grid connected community can stretch across many years. Grid connection timelines have historically run to five years or more from application to a positive offer. Upfront costs are hard to sustain without a secure revenue stream in place. And the administrative processes communities encounter were largely designed for commercial developers with dedicated legal and technical teams. For a group of volunteers with modest seed funding and a lot of goodwill, that combination is genuinely challenging.

The encouraging lesson from Power-Ecom is that these barriers are not permanent. They are design choices. Countries that have built proportionate, community-friendly frameworks have seen their community energy sectors grow quickly. Ireland can make the same choices. A targeted private wires use case for community energy would make a real and immediate difference to the groups who are ready to move.

The SEAI’s network of 900-plus Sustainable Energy Communities, the RESS scheme’s existing REC definitions and the CRU’s developing registration framework are all ready-made building blocks. The legislative gateway is the one thing still needed.

It is worth acknowledging what the SEAI’s Community Enabling Framework has achieved. Through mentors, energy master plans, toolkits and enabling grants, it has supported communities through the Learn-Plan-Do journey. Over 185 Energy Master Plans have been completed at local level. This is a real foundation and deserves recognition.

A Practical Path Forward

Ireland should add a fifth use case to the Private Wires Bill that will enable Renewable Energy Communities to construct and operate private wires to deliver electricity to their members within a defined geographic proximity. The permissions process should be proportionate to the scale and non-commercial character of the applicant. All safety, technical and grid compatibility standards would apply in full.

There are also encouraging recent signals from the regulator. In 2025, the CRU published the new Electricity Connection Policy for Generation and System Services (ECP-GSS), which brings meaningful improvements for community energy projects, including reduced first-stage grid payment fees, removal of minimum and maximum capacity limits, an increase in the capacity bond threshold from 5MW to 6MW, and removal of caps on projects per processing batch. Combined with a clear private wires pathway, these changes could significantly shift what is achievable for RECs on the ground.

The model exists across Europe. The communities are ready here in Ireland. The building blocks are in place. The 2026 Oireachtas process is the moment to bring these things together.

Conclusion: Open the Door a Little Wider

The Private Wires Bill 2026 is a landmark for Irish energy policy. It opens a new era. We at Tipperary Energy Agency are genuinely excited about the investment and renewable deployment it will unlock. Ireland’s energy transformation is gathering pace and this legislation will accelerate it.

As the Bill moves through the Oireachtas, let us open the door a little wider. The community energy sector, the co-operatives, the parish groups, the Sustainable Energy Communities and the Templederry-style projects waiting to happen in every county, have an enormous contribution to make.

One additional, well-designed use case could make the Private Wires Bill a vehicle not just for corporate investment but for genuine people-powered energy.

Ireland has the ambition. It has the communities. It has the renewable resource. Through Power-Ecom we have seen what becomes possible when policy and community energy move in the same direction.