The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) has announced that it will offer €30 million in grant supports for community energy projects next year. This represents a 50 per cent increase in funding from the 2016 grant levels - an additional €10 million for this programme. SEAI’s Better Energy Communities programme supports new approaches to achieving high quality improvements in energy efficiency.  The programme focuses on improving the energy efficiency of Ireland’s building stock and supporting the use of renewable energy.  It helps communities complete energy improvements in a more efficient and cost effective way by clustering buildings under one umbrella project. Over the past five years SEAI has provided €85 million support to 300 community energy efficiency projects.  As a result €170 million has been invested in energy efficiency upgrades of over 15,000 homes and hundreds of community, private and public buildings, supporting several hundred jobs each year. “Using less energy and using it more efficiently is key to tackling the global challenge of climate change. By supporting community energy projects for homeowners, communities and private sector organisations we can demonstrate to everybody the real and practical benefits of energy efficiency. It also reduces the amount of money we spend on imported fossil fuels and instead ensures that this money supports local employment throughout the country,” said Communications, Climate Action and Environment Minister Denis Naughten. “For 2017 we are particularly interested to hear from smaller communities, with smaller projects, that may only be starting out on their sustainable energy journey. We are also providing additional incentives to encourage multiple upgrades in homes that achieve very high performance. All communities with an interest in advancing Ireland’s transition to sustainable energy should contact us to see how we can help – with grant support or simply advice. We will be running workshops nationwide for interested community groups over the coming weeks,” added Jim Gannon, CEO of SEAI. Further programme details are available here.