The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) is currently inviting submissions from members of the public on the new Accelerated Capital Allowances (ACA) equipment categories announced by the Government as part of the last Budget. The ACA is a tax incentive for companies paying corporation tax which aims to encourage  investment in energy efficient equipment. Introduced in 2008, it offers an attractive incentive whereby companies are allowed to write off 100% of the purchase value of qualifying equipment in the year of purchase. There are three new categories covering 15 technologies which are now open to public consultation. Equipment suppliers, specifiers, and other interested parties can review documentation pertaining to the new categories and technology groupings and submit comments via the online comment form on the ACA website, www.seai.ie/aca before Friday 14th of May 2010.

This new expansion of the ACA will bring the total number of equipment categories up to ten along with many more technology groupings and will add to thousands of eligible products listed at www.seai.ie/aca. This will enable the ACA to provide incentives to companies across the majority of energy using equipment in virtually all sectors, providing companies with a wide range of possible cost effective energy saving projects.

In addition to the technology groupings in the new categories, there are five new technology groupings. Criteria for these groupings, which will further extend the scope of the ACA and the options for investment in energy efficient equipment, are open for consultation until 14th May and details are available on www.seai.ie/aca. An invitation to submit eligible equipment from the new technology groupings will be given after the consultation period has concluded. Qualifying equipment will be listed by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland subject to it meeting the published eligibility criteria. The ACA website already lists over 5500 eligible products for the existing ACA categories. In general, submissions of eligible equipment to the ACA can be made through the online process on SEAI’s website. Check out the list of products, eligibility criteria and registration process on www.seai.ie/aca