Activ8 Solar Energies has commenced work on what will become Ireland's largest rooftop solar installation for Mannok, one of Ireland and the UK’s leading manufacturers of construction products and plastic packaging, marking a significant step forward in the decarbonisation of Irish industry.

As I write this watching the rain drizzle down outside my office window, it's hard to believe that Sunday marks Midsummer.‍Midsummer?‍It hasn’t even started yet.‍Also known as the Summer Solstice, 21st June is the longest day of sunlight in the year.‍Which should make it a pretty good day for solar generation.‍So we dug out the stats from one Activ8 customer on 2024's Summer Solstice to see what actually happened.‍It turns out their solar panels were still generating electricity at 11:15pm.

With more than 25,000 customers and over 20 years in business, we’ve been asked some interesting questions over the years at Activ8 Solar Energies.‍One homeowner recently asked if we could point the solar panels towards Lanzarote so they’d get more sun. We’re fairly sure he was joking.‍But underneath the humour was something genuine. Most homeowners still have plenty of questions before installing solar panels. And to be fair, that makes complete sense.‍Solar is still a relatively new purchase for a lot of people in Ireland. You might buy a car every few years or switch insurance annually, but most homeowners will only go through the solar process once.‍Which means people often don’t really know what they should be asking installers in the first place.

We’ve a First Communion this weekend, so the window cleaner was out this morning getting the house looking respectable.‍I remembered him telling me last year that he’d installed ten solar panels and that they were “the best thing he’d ever bought - better than any car, van or tools!”‍I asked him how they were performing and he laughed, “Good enough that I added another six.”‍That probably says more about how attitudes towards solar have changed in Ireland than any statistics ever could.‍A few years ago, most conversations around solar panels were still centred around whether they worked properly in Irish weather, or how long it would take to “pay them back.”

There’s an old Chinese proverb that says: “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.”‍The point, I suppose, is that while some decisions would have been even better made earlier, there’s not much value in endlessly waiting for the perfect moment either.‍Which brings me to a question we hear quite a lot from homeowners thinking about solar panels - “When’s the best time to install them?”‍And to paraphrase the proverb slightly, the best time was probably yesterday. The second best time is today.‍That might sound slightly simplistic, but it reflects how much the thinking around solar has changed in Ireland over the past few years.‍Not that long ago, many people treated solar as something seasonal. You’d start thinking about it once the evenings stretched a bit longer, the hum of lawnmowers returned and you’d had your first 99 of the year.‍But increasingly, homeowners are no longer viewing solar as a summer project. They’re viewing it as a long-term energy decision.

Are solar panels still worth it in Ireland in 2026? Rising electricity costs, SEAI grants, batteries, EV charging and new payment options are changing the conversation

At Activ8 Energies, reducing carbon emissions through practical, scalable renewable energy solutions is central to our environmental strategy. By delivering renewable installations across both residential and commercial sectors, we support the transition to a lower‑carbon energy system while enabling customers to actively reduce their environmental footprint.

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