Ennis primary school is Ireland's first fully solar powered school

A county Clare school is the first in Ireland to be fully solar powered.

CBS Primary in Ennis installed 90 solar panels on the roof of the school, along with a 40kilowatt solar power plant in October 2022.

Sharing their data for 2023 on Facebook, the school "are happy to report that we generated 39.48 megawatts of electricity while using 32.40 megawatts.

The excess 7.08 megawatts were sold back to the grid, earning revenue for CBS Primary and powering homes and businesses around Ennis.

CBS Ennis principal Dara Glynn said that the school community really wanted to be a carbon neutral school when they moved into their new premises in 2019, "and knew it wasn't a pipe dream".

Speaking to RTÉ, Mr Glynn said the solar panels "will pay themselves off over the next six or seven years because it's already saved us about €10,000 in electricity bills."

The project, which cost €67,000, was fundraised by the school community over the last number of years.

"By January 25, 2024, our plant has prevented 29.96 tonnes of carbon dioxide from being released into the environment - that’s the equivalent of 11.52 tonnes of coal or 2058 trees," the post on Facebook continued.

"Carbon neutrality is not a pipe dream."

Jennifer Whitmore, a Social Democrats TD and her party’s spokesperson on energy, praised CBS Primary in Ennis for their initiative and said the Clare school has highlighted what is possible for solar energy in Irish schools, "in comparison to what the State is facilitating".

"Energy Minister Eamon Ryan clearly needs a lesson from this school to show him what a real rooftop revolution looks like," she stated.