The Low Carbon Homes Programme will be administered by Sustainable Energy Ireland, according to Minister Eamon Ryan.
The Minister said the project would offer grants of up to 40% of eligible expenditure to promote energy performance standards for large housing developments.
It is hoped these buildings will compliment the recently adopted Building Regulations (BER).
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The Minister has invested €9 million into the scheme, which is expected to reduce the carbon emissions of participating building to around 'zero' or 'very low'.
To achieve this target a significant element of auto-generation of electricity from renewable technologies such as solar photovoltaic, micro-wind and micro combined heat and power (CHP) will be required.
It has been suggested houses built under the new programme will be at least 70% more energy efficient and produce at least 70% less carbon dioxide than homes built to 2005 standards and will have a Building Energy Rating (BER) of at least A2.
Those homes that have already adopted the Building Regulations scheme are rated as B1; two points lower than the minimum standard of the Low Carbon Homes Programme.
(PR/JM)
