The OPW, funded by the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment, partnered with the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) to deliver a programme of energy retrofit works across the central government portfolio. The energy retrofits carried out mainly comprised lighting, heating and controls systems upgrades. Since 2017 the OPW has completed approximately 120 projects through this initiative. The measured energy savings in the retrofitted buildings are showing savings of up to 70% in the electricity used for lighting, leading to savings of up to 50% in total electrical consumption.
The OPW has now extended its collaboration with SEAI to secure additional funding of €30M for “Building Retrofit Pathfinder Programme”. The OPW has delivered a programme of “deep retrofit” energy upgrades in a selection of OPW-managed buildings over a three-year period (2022-2024). One of the objectives of this programme is to build a scalable model for energy management and retrofit investment in OPW’s building stock in the achievement of national policy targets. The OPW has also been allocated funding from the National Recovery and Resilience Planning fund (€15M), which will be used for similar deep energy retrofit projects