And Sonitus Systems is well positioned to support it!
Ireland’s National Development Plan Review 2025 – Sectoral Capital Plan for the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment (DCEE) commits more than €9.14 billion between 2026 and 2030 to decarbonisation, grid expansion, renewable energy, circular economy initiatives, and environmental protection. It is one of the largest climate-related investment programmes in the history of the state. What is equally clear from the plan is that the delivery of every one of these projects requires high-quality, continuous, and independently verifiable environmental monitoring.
Within Sonitus Systems, our technologies already underpin compliant monitoring on large infrastructure and renewable energy projects across Ireland and internationally.
A significant share of the investment will upgrade the national electricity grid, with PR6 authorising €14.1–€18.1 billion of transmission and distribution spending, including 27 new 110 kV substations, extensive cabling works, and more than 50,000 pole replacements nationwide. These projects run across urban centres, rural communities, new housing zones and sensitive landscapes. Each requires strict compliance with planning conditions on construction noise, vibration, dust, and air quality. Continuous remote monitoring – accurate, automated, and tamper-proof – is now the only practical way for developers, contractors and local authorities to demonstrate compliance and avoid delays. Sonitus’s remote noise and environmental monitoring systems already meet this need, offering real-time alerts, auditable datasets, and reporting capabilities tailored to Irish and EU planning requirements.
Beyond energy generation, the DCEE plan sets out major initiatives for the built environment, including up to €3.7 billion for national retrofit schemes, large-scale deployment of heat pumps, development of district heating systems, and the expansion of biomethane production. These changes create new environmental monitoring requirements within residential areas, commercial districts, and industrial sites. Heat pumps and district heating networks introduce persistent noise sources that must remain within planning conditions; anaerobic digestion plants require monitoring for noise and odour to maintain public acceptance. Sonitus’s unattended, remotely managed monitoring solutions allow operators and local authorities to track environmental performance continuously and respond quickly to exceedances – helping maintain compliance and community confidence as decarbonised heating scales up.
Central to the entire plan is a strengthened governance framework that demands transparency, auditability, and evidence-based decision-making. Updated Infrastructure Guidelines require a higher standard of appraisal and performance management, and this raises expectations for environmental compliance documentation on every publicly funded project. Sonitus Systems provides monitoring solutions that produce defensible, regulator-ready data, reducing administrative burdens for project teams and ensuring that environmental performance records withstand formal scrutiny.
Access the NDP Sectoral Plan in full at: https://assets.gov.ie/static/documents/bd95ab8a/DCEE_Sectoral_Capital_Plan_2026_to_2030.pdf
Sonitus Systems offers both the hardware and software for a range of environmental parameters on a continual basis, with real-time information available through our Sonitus Cloud dashboard. For more details on our indoor and outdoor noise and air quality monitoring products and services, please contact the team at https://www.sonitussystems.com/contact-us