If you are shortlisting the best solar design software in Ireland for 2026, the trap to avoid is buying a tool configured for Britain. Irish and British electrical practice share a common ancestry, and plenty of vendors treat that as permission to ship one product for both islands. It does not survive contact with an Irish job. The wiring rules are I.S. 10101, the standard that replaced ET 101, not BS 7671. The grant is the SEAI Solar PV Scheme, not a VAT relief. The export payment is the Clean Export Guarantee with supplier-set rates, not the Smart Export Guarantee. The connection is an ESB Networks NC6 or NC7, not a DNO G98 or G99. None of those map cleanly. The platform that wins our 2026 bench is SurgePV, a cloud-native all-in-one suite at US$1,299 per user per year on the 5-User Team plan, about €1,180 at €0.91 to the US dollar. It does not win on price and we will not claim it does: OpenSolar’s core platform is free, five PVsyst licences cost CHF 3,500 and five PV*SOL premium seats cost EUR 4,225 plus VAT, all of which undercut five SurgePV seats. Below are the ten platforms Irish installers genuinely shortlist, priced in euros, with honest limitations on each including ours. You can compare SurgePV pricing before you speak to a sales rep.
Direct answer. The best solar design software in Ireland for 2026 is SurgePV, at US$1,299 per user per year on the 5-User Team plan (US$6,495 for five seats, about €1,180 and €5,900 at €0.91 to the US dollar). It labels the single-line diagram to I.S. 10101 conventions, carries a per-supplier Clean Export Guarantee tariff library rather than one national rate, raises the ESB Networks NC6 to NC7 fork inside the design canvas as inverter output crosses 6 kVA, models the SEAI grant at €700 per kWp to 2 kWp then €200 per kWp to 4 kWp, and runs 8,760-hour module-level shading on a diffuse-weighted Irish sky. For lender-grade yield reports, PVsyst is still the document funders ask for by name.
This guide is written for SEAI registered installers, Safe Electric registered contractors, EPC firms and in-house design teams shipping five or more projects a month. We rank ten platforms on four criteria: Irish regulatory depth, engineering rigour under low and diffuse irradiance, workflow coverage from address to signed contract, and total cost of ownership in euros across a five-person team.
Why Ireland Is Not a Smaller UK
Five differences, and every one of them breaks a tool that was localised for Britain and then relabelled.
The wiring rules are I.S. 10101. The National Rules for Electrical Installations, published by the NSAI and developed by its electrotechnical committee, replaced the long-standing ET 101 as the Irish standard. Most people on site still say ET 101 and everyone knows what they mean, but the document a certifier works to is I.S. 10101, and the Health and Safety Authority treats it as the reference for inspection and testing. The completion certificate comes from a registered electrical contractor under Safe Electric, the RECI-administered scheme, not from a competent person scheme like NICEIC. A drawing labelled to BS 7671 clause numbers is not wrong physics, it is the wrong citation on an Irish certificate.
The grant is the SEAI Solar PV Scheme. It pays €700 per kWp for the first 2 kWp and €200 per kWp between 2 and 4 kWp, to a maximum of €1,800, calculated pro rata on part kilowatts. Systems above 4 kWp get the same €1,800 and nothing more. The work must be carried out by an installer on the SEAI registered installer list and the property must meet the build-year condition. That grant taper has a real design consequence: the marginal grant on the fifth kilowatt is zero, so a proposal comparing 4 kWp and 6 kWp has to show the customer that the extra capacity is being paid for entirely out of pocket.
Export pays under the Clean Export Guarantee, and the supplier sets the rate. The CEG obliges suppliers to pay micro-generators for exported units, but it does not fix the price. In 2026 the published rates run from roughly 15c per kWh at the bottom of the market to about 25c at the top, with promotional and partner-linked rates above that. The first €400 a year of microgeneration income is exempt from income tax, USC and PRSI. A tool that applies one national export rate to every quote is producing a cash flow that can be out by more than half.
The connection is NC6 or NC7 and it forks at 6 kVA. ESB Networks treats micro-generation up to 6 kVA single phase or 11 kVA three phase as an NC6 notification, with no connection charge and no pre-approval. Above that you are in NC7 mini-generation territory, up to 17 kVA single phase and 50 kVA three phase, which means a paid application, a technical assessment and a connection offer that you accept before you energise. The salesperson who casually quotes an 8 kW inverter on a single-phase rural house has just created a delay they did not price.
Planning exemption changed in 2022 and it is a live design constraint. The exempted development regulations made in 2022 removed the old rooftop area cap for solar on houses and lifted the limits substantially for commercial, industrial, agricultural and community buildings. What they did not do is make it universal. The Planning and Development (Solar Safeguarding Zone) Regulations 2022, S.I. 492 of 2022, set out 43 solar safeguarding zones around aerodromes where rooftop area limits continue to apply. If your site sits inside one, the design has a hard cap on it and the exemption you assumed does not exist.
📘 Regulation note
An Irish domestic PV system is installed to I.S. 10101 by a registered electrical contractor, notified to ESB Networks on an NC6 up to 6 kVA single phase or applied for on an NC7 above that, grant aided through the SEAI Solar PV Scheme where the installer is on the SEAI register, and paid for exports under the Clean Export Guarantee at a rate the customer's own supplier sets. Check whether the site falls inside one of the 43 solar safeguarding zones before assuming planning exemption.
Bring one of your own sites to a free SurgePV demo. We will build the 3D roof from a satellite address, run the 8,760-hour shading simulation, and hand you the SLD, BOQ and branded proposal on the call.
Book a free SurgePV demo → Compare pricingLow Irradiance and a Very Diffuse Sky
This is the engineering point most software imported from sunnier markets handles badly, and in Ireland it decides whether your yield estimate is honest.
A well-oriented Irish array typically produces somewhere around 900 to 1,050 kWh per kWp per year depending on location, orientation and shading, with the south east generally ahead of the west coast. That number alone is not the interesting part. The interesting part is how the light arrives. Under a persistently cloudy maritime climate, a large majority of annual irradiance reaches the array as diffuse rather than direct beam radiation. Ireland sits at the extreme end of that spectrum among European markets.
Three design consequences follow, and they push in directions that surprise people used to Mediterranean or Indian rules of thumb.
| Design question | Sunny market answer | Irish answer | Why it differs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Optimal azimuth | Strongly south, penalty steep off-axis | South preferred, east or west penalty modest | Diffuse light arrives from the whole sky dome, not one direction |
| Optimal tilt | Near latitude, steep | Shallower than latitude works well | Flatter planes see more of the sky dome and shed less diffuse gain |
| Value of tracking or steep winter tilt | High | Low | Beam fraction is too small to reward chasing the sun |
| Sensitivity of yield to shading model quality | High | Very high | Sky-diffuse and horizon shading dominate the loss tree |
The practical test for any tool you are evaluating: does it separate direct and diffuse components properly, and does it apply a real sky-diffuse view factor when an obstruction blocks part of the sky dome? A simulator that treats shading as a simple beam-blocking geometry will systematically misprice an Irish urban terrace with a chimney, a dormer and a neighbouring gable, because most of what the chimney blocks is diffuse sky, not a sunbeam. Our diffuse horizontal irradiance and shading loss glossary entries set out the definitions, and the difference between a good and a poor diffuse model on the same Dublin roof is routinely several percent of annual yield.
Get your sizing sanity-checked. For a fast independent second opinion on system size and payback before you build the design, run the numbers through our free solar calculator or talk to our engineering team.
The 4-Point Ireland Bench Test
This is the framework we use internally before deploying any design platform on our own solar EPC work. Each tool scores 1 to 10 on four axes, out of 40. Nothing below 32 gets deployed.
- Irish regulatory depth. I.S. 10101 labelling on the generated single-line diagram, ESB Networks NC6 versus NC7 trigger at 6 kVA single phase, SEAI grant taper modelled correctly at €700 then €200 per kWp, per-supplier CEG tariff library, and a flag for the solar safeguarding zones.
- Engineering rigour under a diffuse sky. 8,760-hour module-level simulation with a proper split of direct and diffuse irradiance, sky view factor handling on partial obstructions, P50, P75 and P90 outputs in the format Irish lenders typically ask for on commercial work, and low-light inverter behaviour.
- Workflow coverage. Address to I.S. 10101 labelled drawing to bill of quantities to branded proposal in one licence, with DXF or DWG export for the structural engineer.
- Total cost of ownership in euros. Seat licence plus add-ons plus onboarding time, per finished project, across five people.
Scores across the ten platforms: SurgePV 37, OpenSolar 31, Aurora Solar 30, Easy PV 28, Solargraf 26, HelioScope 30, PVsyst 31, SolarEdge Designer 24, PVSOL premium 30, PVcase 25. OpenSolar, Easy PV, PVsyst and PVSOL all score above SurgePV on the cost axis, because a free core platform, a free Basic tier, CHF 700 a year and EUR 845 a year are each cheaper than a US$1,299 seat. The scoring is ours and it is opinionated. Easy PV drops from the position it holds on our UK bench for one honest reason: its strongest feature is MCS and DNO form output, and neither of those exists in Ireland.
Top 10 Solar Design Software in Ireland Compared
Pricing below is 2026 and quoted in each vendor’s own billing currency, with euro conversions at roughly €0.91 per US dollar where they help. Treat converted figures as indicative.
| # | Platform | Price (vendor currency) | Key capability | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | SurgePV | US$1,299/user/yr, 5-User Team (about €1,180) | All-in-one design, 8,760-hr diffuse-aware simulation, I.S. 10101 drawing, CEG library, NC6 trigger | Irish installers and EPCs doing 5+ projects a month |
| 2 | Aurora Solar | US$135/user/mo Basic, US$220 Premium, billed annually | Deepest residential design and sales workflow | Larger residential firms with existing Aurora process |
| 3 | OpenSolar | Core platform free; API Access and Connectors chargeable from 16 Apr 2026, rates not published | Free design tier with strong residential templates | Solo installers and small Irish shops |
| 4 | HelioScope | US$159/mo Basic (US$1,620/yr), US$259 Pro | Bankable C&I yield simulation | Consultancies on commercial rooftops |
| 5 | PVsyst | CHF 700/user/yr Professional | Reference-grade simulation physics and diffuse modelling | Independent engineers and lender due diligence |
| 6 | Easy PV | Basic free, Pro GBP 35/month | Fast residential layouts and sign-off packs | Firms working both sides of the border |
| 7 | Solargraf | US$2,799/yr Starter (240 projects, 2 users) to US$12,999 Enterprise | Quick remote design and proposal in the Enphase product line | Enphase-heavy residential installers |
| 8 | PV*SOL premium | EUR 845/named user/yr + VAT | Detailed 3D shading walkthrough | Engineering-led consultancies |
| 9 | SolarEdge Designer | Free | String design inside the SolarEdge product line | SolarEdge-heavy installers |
| 10 | PVcase | Not publicly listed, quote only | Terrain-aware ground-mount layout in AutoCAD | Ground-mount and farm developers |
The honest read: positions 1 through 5 are genuine contenders for an Irish installer. Positions 6 through 10 are specialists or single-vendor tools. PVsyst at number five is a ranking of fit rather than quality, because its diffuse modelling is arguably the strongest on this list and it gives you none of the proposal, drafting or sales workflow an Irish installer needs.
1. SurgePV
What it does best. SurgePV runs the whole motion in one licence: satellite address to AI-generated 3D roof, 8,760-hour module-level shading with a proper diffuse split, string sizing, I.S. 10101 labelled single-line diagram, bill of quantities, financial model and white-label proposal. For Ireland specifically, four things matter. The CEG library is per supplier rather than one national rate, so a proposal on a 25c tariff and one on a 15c tariff produce different and defensible cash flows, with the €400 tax-free threshold shown separately. The design canvas raises the NC6 to NC7 fork as inverter output crosses 6 kVA single phase, before anyone has promised an install date. The SEAI grant is modelled as a taper at €700 per kWp to 2 kWp then €200 per kWp to 4 kWp, so the customer sees exactly where marginal grant support stops. And the shading engine applies a sky view factor to partial obstructions rather than treating them as beam blockers, which is the single most important simulation behaviour in a diffuse-dominated climate. Clara AI takes plain instructions such as “design a 5.9 kW single phase array on a south west roof with a 5 kWh battery on a 20c export tariff”.
Pricing. US$1,299 per user per year on the 5-User Team plan, so US$6,495 for five seats, about €1,180 per seat and €5,900 for five. Individual seats are US$1,899 a year, about €1,730. Enterprise is quoted. Free trial, no credit card. Said plainly: an Aurora Basic seat at US$1,620 a year is cheaper than a SurgePV Individual seat, five PVsyst licences at CHF 3,500 cost less than five SurgePV seats, and OpenSolar’s core platform costs nothing at all.
Who it suits. SEAI registered installers and EPCs doing five or more designs a month, teams quoting domestic alongside commercial rooftops, and firms currently paying for a design licence and a separate proposal licence.
Honest limitations. Four real ones, and Ireland is a small market where they bite. Brand recognition is thin: SurgePV launched in 2025, and an Irish commercial customer’s funder has never seen its report format, where a PVsyst output needs no introduction. It does not submit the NC6 or NC7 to the ESB Networks portal for you, it prepares the data and a person uploads it, so the connection admin is unchanged. It does not generate the Safe Electric completion certificate, which stays with your registered electrical contractor and their own paperwork. And the component database is thinner on the smaller Irish and British mounting-system suppliers than on modules and inverters, so procurement still checks the mounting line manually on slate and older roofs.
Book a SurgePV demo and bring a real Irish project so you can judge the CEG modelling, the NC6 trigger and the diffuse shading on your own job rather than a showcase file.
2. Aurora Solar
What it does best. The deepest residential design and sales workflow available anywhere, with mature roof plane detection, strong remote site assessment and customer-facing presentation that closes deals. The simulation engine is credible and the sales tooling is better than most of this list.
Pricing. Basic is US$135 per user per month billed annually (US$1,620 a year, or US$159 month to month) and Premium is US$220 billed annually (US$2,640 a year, or US$259 month to month), each covering one user and 50 projects a month. Enterprise is custom. Five seats therefore run US$8,100 a year on Basic and US$13,200 on Premium, roughly €7,400 to €12,000. LIDAR modelling, bankable shade reports and battery modelling are Premium only, and plan sets are a separately priced service rather than a plan inclusion, with site models from US$9.99.
Who it suits. Larger Irish residential firms, especially any that already run Aurora in another market.
Honest limitations. The Irish regulatory layer is effectively absent. No CEG supplier library, no SEAI grant taper, no NC6 or NC7 trigger, no I.S. 10101 citation on the drawing set and no awareness of solar safeguarding zones. Per-seat monthly pricing also scales hard once you pass three designers. Our Aurora Solar alternative comparison sets out the cost arithmetic.
3. OpenSolar
What it does best. A free design tier with polished residential templates, quick proposals and a short learning curve. It has real traction among small Irish installers for exactly that reason, and for a firm doing two or three domestic jobs a month it is difficult to beat on price.
Pricing. The core platform is free. From 16 April 2026 OpenSolar charges for API Access, billed per project on creation, and for Connectors, billed as a flat monthly fee, but it has not published the rates and they vary by region.
Who it suits. Solo installers, new entrants and small shops that need a working proposal without a licence commitment.
Honest limitations. Irish regulatory depth is shallow, so grant taper and CEG rates go in by hand and stay right only while someone maintains them, and there is no bankable output for financed commercial work. On price it beats every paid tool here, ours included, and until the 2026 API and Connector rates are published nobody can tell you what an Irish team will pay beyond zero for the core platform. See our OpenSolar alternative analysis.
4. HelioScope
What it does best. Module-level 8,760-hour simulation for commercial and industrial roofs with a clean loss tree that independent engineers accept. On a 400 kW distribution shed outside Dublin it produces a defensible number and a report a funder will read.
Pricing. US$159 a month on Basic (US$1,620 a year) and US$259 on Pro (US$2,640 a year), each covering one user and 10 projects a month, with DC design caps of 1.25 MW and 5 MW. Five Basic seats come to US$8,100 a year, roughly €7,400. HelioScope is Aurora-owned.
Who it suits. Consultancies and commercial-only teams whose deliverable is a yield report.
Honest limitations. No Irish regulatory layer, no CEG or SEAI modelling, no I.S. 10101 labelling, no AI roof capture, and proposal tooling weak enough to force a second licence. Read our HelioScope alternative guide before committing five seats.
5. PVsyst
What it does best. PVsyst is the reference simulation engine, and its transposition and diffuse sky models are the strongest argument for keeping it in an Irish stack. In a climate where most annual irradiance is diffuse, the quality of the sky model is not academic. It is also the report an Irish bank’s technical adviser asks for by name on a financed project, and on bankability it beats SurgePV outright.
Pricing. CHF 700 per user per year for the Professional annual subscription, so CHF 3,500 for five licences before the 5 to 20 percent group discount. Education is CHF 420, Training and Research CHF 560, Student and Classroom CHF 25, and PVsystCLI CHF 3,000. It is a subscription, not a perpetual licence, and five licences cost less than five SurgePV seats.
Who it suits. Independent engineers, technical due diligence teams and anyone producing yield reports for finance.
Honest limitations. Windows desktop, a steep learning curve, and no design workflow in the sense an installer means it. No proposals, no CEG modelling, no SEAI grant handling and no I.S. 10101 documentation. It is a physics tool, not a business tool. Our PVsyst alternative guide covers the tradeoff.
6. Easy PV
What it does best. Built in Cambridge by Midsummer Energy, Easy PV produces fast residential layouts and a tidy sign-off pack, and the Basic tier is free. Irish firms that also work in Northern Ireland or take British subcontract work get real value from having it.
Pricing. Basic is free and Pro is GBP 35 a month. The Enterprise tier is not publicly listed.
Who it suits. Installers working both sides of the border, and anyone who wants a quick second layout.
Honest limitations. Its two strongest features, MCS performance estimate output and DNO G98 or G99 form generation, are British institutions with no Irish equivalent. In the Republic they generate paperwork nobody wants. There is no CEG library, no SEAI grant taper and no NC6 logic. This is the clearest example of why an Irish firm should not simply adopt a UK shortlist.
7. Solargraf
What it does best. Enphase’s design and proposal tool turns a remote site into a layout and a customer-facing quote quickly, with sensible microinverter and battery configuration on Enphase hardware. Enphase has a solid Irish residential base and the workflow is genuinely fast for straightforward roofs.
Pricing. Solargraf sells project bundles rather than seats. Starter is US$2,799 for 240 projects and 2 users, rising to Enterprise at US$12,999 for 1,500 projects. API access is US$4,000 a year on every plan except Enterprise.
Who it suits. Enphase-heavy residential installers who value speed over engineering depth.
Honest limitations. It leans toward one manufacturer’s hardware, its shading model is lighter than a dedicated simulator, and its Irish regulatory content is minimal. No I.S. 10101 drawing set, no NC6 fork and no CEG supplier library.
8. PV*SOL premium
What it does best. The 3D shading walkthrough is the most persuasive customer-facing shading explanation in any tool on this list, which is worth real money in an Irish kitchen conversation about a neighbour’s sycamore. The European component database is deep and the simulation is trusted.
Pricing. PVSOL premium is EUR 845 per named user per year plus VAT, so EUR 4,225 for five seats, which is less than five SurgePV seats. The standard PVSOL product is EUR 585. Valentin Software moved to user-based subscription on 19 November 2024; perpetual licences bought before that date remain usable indefinitely, but maintenance renewals for them ended on 1 October 2024.
Who it suits. Engineering-led consultancies and firms whose deliverable is a technical yield report.
Honest limitations. Windows desktop, so no live collaboration. No Irish regulatory layer at all. Proposal output is not a sales document. No AI assistant and no satellite roof capture, so every job starts with manual modelling. Our PV*SOL alternative comparison has the detail.
9. SolarEdge Designer
What it does best. Free, fast string design inside the SolarEdge product line, with accurate optimiser and inverter matching and sensible handling of the module-level shading the hardware exists to address.
Pricing. Free.
Who it suits. Irish installers whose default hardware is SolarEdge.
Honest limitations. Single-vendor by design, no Irish financial modelling, no I.S. 10101 documentation and no proposal an Irish customer would sign. It answers the string question and stops.
10. PVcase
What it does best. Terrain-aware ground-mount layout inside AutoCAD. Ireland’s ground-mount pipeline is modest next to Poland’s or Spain’s, but the projects that exist are on undulating land where terrain-aware row spacing is exactly the problem PVcase solves.
Pricing. Not publicly listed. PVcase is quote only and requires an AutoCAD licence on top; any per-seat figure circulating in software directories is an unverified third-party estimate.
Who it suits. Ground-mount developers and farm-scale EPCs.
Honest limitations. No rooftop or residential relevance, no proposal workflow, and it assumes an AutoCAD-competent operator. Most readers of this article are outside its target market. Our PVcase alternative writeup covers the cheaper routes.
Ready to size a real project? Send us one Irish design and our engineers will return a second opinion on system size, export value and payback within 48 hours. Request a review →
Pricing in Euros for a Five-Person Team
Prices are shown in the vendor’s own billing currency. Euro figures marked approximate use €0.91 to the US dollar and a roughly one-to-one Swiss franc to euro rate.
| Platform | Entry | Mid | Five seats per year | What is bundled |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SurgePV | US$1,899/user/yr Individual | US$1,299/user/yr (5-User Team) | US$6,495 (about €5,900) | I.S. 10101 drawing, CEG library, SEAI taper, NC6 trigger, AI 3D, 8,760-hr diffuse-aware simulation, DXF/DWG, proposals |
| Easy PV | Basic free | Pro GBP 35/month | GBP 2,100 on five Pro seats | Layouts and sign-off packs, British paperwork focus |
| SolarEdge Designer | Free | Free | €0 | SolarEdge string design only |
| OpenSolar | Free | Free core platform | €0 for the core platform; 2026 API and Connector rates not published | Free residential design, chargeable API and Connectors from 16 Apr 2026 |
| PVsyst | CHF 700/user/yr | n/a | CHF 3,500 before group discount | Simulation only, strongest diffuse model |
| Solargraf | US$2,799/yr Starter (240 projects, 2 users) | Mid bundles by project volume | US$12,999/yr Enterprise (1,500 projects) | Fast Enphase-oriented design and proposal |
| PV*SOL premium | EUR 585 standard PV*SOL | EUR 845/named user/yr + VAT | EUR 4,225 + VAT | Desktop simulation, 3D shading, weak proposals |
| HelioScope | US$159/mo Basic (US$1,620/yr) | US$259/mo Pro (US$2,640/yr) | US$8,100 on Basic (about €7,400) | Engineering depth, weak proposals |
| Aurora Solar | US$135/user/mo Basic annually (US$1,620/yr) | US$220 Premium annually (US$2,640/yr) | US$8,100 Basic, US$13,200 Premium | Residential workflow, no Irish layer |
| PVcase | Not publicly listed | Not publicly listed | Not publicly listed | Ground mount CAD only |
Read that honestly and SurgePV is mid-priced rather than cheap. Five PVsyst licences at CHF 3,500 and five PV*SOL premium seats at EUR 4,225 both undercut SurgePV’s US$6,495, five Aurora Basic seats at US$8,100 buy design without proposals, and OpenSolar’s core platform costs nothing. What five SurgePV seats buy is the Irish regulatory layer and the bundled proposal, not the lowest line on the page. For a two person firm doing domestic work only, OpenSolar’s free tier plus careful manual grant and CEG figures is still the rational answer, and we would say so.
Irish Design Details Most Software Gets Wrong
The 6 kVA fork is an inverter rating question, not an array size question. ESB Networks looks at what the inverter can export, not at how many panels are on the roof. A 7.5 kWp array behind a 6 kVA inverter with export limiting stays inside NC6 territory, which is why oversized DC to AC ratios are common on Irish domestic jobs and why a tool that only reasons about kWp gives the wrong answer. Your software has to model AC output and export limiting as first-class inputs, or a salesperson will trigger an NC7 application by accident.
The SEAI grant taper is not a percentage. It is €700 per kWp for the first 2 kWp, then €200 per kWp to 4 kWp, capped at €1,800. Software that models the grant as a flat percentage of system cost, which is what most imported tools do, produces a number that is wrong at every size except by coincidence. The taper also changes the shape of the recommendation: the jump from 3 kWp to 4 kWp costs the customer far less net than the jump from 4 kWp to 5 kWp.
CEG income is taxable above €400 a year. The first €400 of microgeneration profit is exempt from income tax, USC and PRSI. On a 25c tariff, that threshold is reached at about 1,600 exported units, which a well-sized 5 kWp system on a low-occupancy house will pass comfortably. A proposal that shows gross export income for 20 years with no reference to the threshold is overstating the after-tax result for exactly the customers most likely to export heavily.
⚠️ Watch out
Check the solar safeguarding zones before you promise planning exemption on a commercial roof. Forty three zones around aerodromes retain rooftop area limits, and a design that assumed the post-2022 exemption applies has to be cut back if the site falls inside one.
Mistakes Irish Installers Make Choosing Design Software
-
1
Buying the UK configuration. MCS estimates, BS 7671 citations and G98 forms are British. In the Republic they are paperwork nobody asked for, and the Irish equivalents are missing entirely.
-
2
Applying one national export rate. CEG rates are supplier-set and the 2026 spread runs from roughly 15c to 25c per kWh. The same array produces very different lifetime numbers depending on who the customer buys from.
-
3
Sizing past 6 kVA without flagging NC7. An NC7 application adds a fee, an assessment and a connection offer before energisation. Discovering it after the customer has a date is how installs slip by weeks.
-
4
Trusting a beam-only shading model. Under a mostly diffuse Irish sky, an obstruction blocks sky dome rather than sunbeams. A tool without a sky view factor understates the loss from chimneys, dormers and gables.
-
5
Modelling the SEAI grant as a percentage. It is a two-step taper capped at €1,800. A percentage model misprices every system size and hides where the marginal grant runs out.
These patterns are not unique to Ireland in kind, only in detail. Our writeup on common mistakes EPC companies make in rooftop solar covers the wider set.
Should an Irish Installer Standardise on SurgePV?
- ✓ You design 5+ Irish projects a month
- ✓ You quote domestic and commercial from one office
- ✓ Your CEG and SEAI figures currently live in a spreadsheet
- ✓ Designers and sales need the same live project file
- ✗ You are two people doing domestic only (OpenSolar free tier)
- ✗ Your deliverable is a bankable yield report (PVsyst)
- ✗ Most of your turnover is British subcontract work (Easy PV)
- ✗ You develop ground-mount on undulating land (PVcase)
Verdict. For a five-person Irish firm covering domestic and commercial rooftops, SurgePV wins on bundled scope, on the CEG and SEAI modelling nobody else does properly, and on the diffuse-aware shading engine that an Irish sky demands. For a two-person domestic-only outfit, OpenSolar’s free tier with hand-maintained grant and export figures is still rational. For anything financed, keep PVsyst.
How Heaven Green Energy and SurgePV Help Irish Teams
Heaven Green Energy has delivered more than 10,000 solar installations, and our engineering group builds the software we use ourselves. SurgePV came out of that: a design suite written by people who had to produce inspection-ready drawings on deadline. For Irish teams the entry points are:
- Shadow analysis for 8,760-hour module-level shading with a diffuse sky view factor.
- Rooftop detailed engineering design when you need a full drawing package produced by a dedicated team.
- Structural and civil engineering for wind load verification on exposed Atlantic coast roofs.
- QuickEstimate proposal generator if your gap is sales follow-up rather than design.
If you run projects outside Ireland, our commercial solar and industrial solar pages set out how the same design stack carries across markets. Broader market context sits with the IEA renewables tracker and IRENA country profiles.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best solar design software in Ireland in 2026?
SurgePV ranks first on our 4-point Ireland bench with 37 of 40, at US$1,299 per user per year on the 5-User Team plan (about €1,180), because it is the only platform on the list that models the Clean Export Guarantee per supplier, tapers the SEAI grant correctly and raises the ESB Networks NC6 to NC7 fork inside the design canvas. Aurora and HelioScope both score 30 on engineering and workflow, and PVsyst stays in the stack of anyone producing yield reports for finance.
What is the difference between ET 101 and I.S. 10101?
ET 101 was the long-standing Irish national wiring rules document. It has been replaced by I.S. 10101, the National Rules for Electrical Installations published by the NSAI and developed through its electrotechnical committee. Most people on site still say ET 101 out of habit. The certificate your registered electrical contractor issues under Safe Electric references I.S. 10101, and a drawing set citing BS 7671 clause numbers is the wrong reference for an Irish installation.
How much is the SEAI solar grant in 2026?
The SEAI Solar PV Scheme pays €700 per kWp for the first 2 kWp and €200 per kWp for capacity between 2 and 4 kWp, to a maximum of €1,800, calculated pro rata on part kilowatts. Systems larger than 4 kWp receive the same €1,800 and no more. The work must be carried out by an installer on the SEAI registered installer list and the property must meet the scheme’s build-year condition, so check eligibility before quoting a net price.
What rate does the Clean Export Guarantee pay?
The CEG obliges electricity suppliers to pay micro-generators for exported units, but each supplier sets its own rate. In 2026 published rates sit roughly between 15c and 25c per kWh, with promotional and partner-linked offers above that range. Because the rate follows the customer’s supplier rather than a national tariff, design software that applies one export price to every quote can be wrong by more than half on lifetime export income.
When do I need an NC7 instead of an NC6?
The NC6 is a notification covering micro-generation up to 6 kVA single phase or 11 kVA three phase, with no connection charge and no pre-approval. Above those limits you move into NC7 mini-generation, which covers up to 17 kVA single phase and 50 kVA three phase and requires a paid application, a technical assessment and a connection offer you accept before energising. Export limiting an inverter to stay inside NC6 is a common and legitimate design choice.
Do I need planning permission for rooftop solar in Ireland?
For most houses, no. The 2022 exempted development regulations removed the old rooftop area cap for domestic solar and substantially raised the limits for commercial, industrial, agricultural and community buildings. The exception matters though: the Planning and Development (Solar Safeguarding Zone) Regulations 2022 set out 43 zones around aerodromes where rooftop area limits still apply. Confirm whether the site sits inside a safeguarding zone before assuming exemption.
Why does diffuse irradiance modelling matter more in Ireland?
Ireland’s maritime climate delivers most annual irradiance as diffuse sky radiation rather than direct beam. That flattens the penalty for east and west orientations and for shallower tilts, and it makes shading loss harder to model, because an obstruction removes part of the sky dome rather than blocking a sunbeam. A simulator without a proper sky view factor will understate losses from chimneys, dormers and neighbouring gables on typical Irish housing stock.
What is SurgePV’s biggest weakness for Irish installers?
Brand recognition and the fact that it stops at the portal. SurgePV launched in 2025, so a commercial customer’s funder has never seen its report format, where a PVsyst output needs no introduction. It prepares the NC6 or NC7 data but does not submit to the ESB Networks portal, it does not produce the Safe Electric completion certificate, and its mounting-system database is thinner on the smaller Irish and British suppliers than on modules and inverters, which shows up on slate and older roofs.
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