Anything "Sustainable" about renewables for tradesmen ?

While I am personally a big supporter of the use of sustainable / renewable energy solutions in Irish homes, I have to question whether it is currently viable for Irish tradesmen to limit themselves to such technologies in the sector.

Unfortunately, an initial surge of interest in all things solar panel, heat pump, wood pellet etc. apart, it seems that a disappointingly low amount of money has changed hands in this area of home improvement in the last 6 months or so.

Am I wrong ? I hope so, but anecdotal evidence from tradesmen in the area would suggest otherwise. The issue appears to be that property owners have worked out that the return on investment for solar, wood chip etc. is just too long - even with the SEI's greener homes scheme in place. In a period when "cash is king", it has resulted in property owners choosing more "traditional" solutions, such as efficient gas & oil boilers that meet current building regulations, for their lower upfront costs. Disappointing but hardly surprising. Indeed with the banks giving high interest rates for money on deposit, the pro's of saving a significant lump sum upfront and putting it to work immediately versus taking accumulated savings over an extended period appears to weaken the business case for sustainable further still.

The result of all of this is wholesale reports of tradesmen (plumbers in particular) that had initially set out their stall as "100%" sustainable solution providers have had to revert to traditional domestic work to supplement their incomes. Don't get me wrong - there is still activity in the sustainable sector and we see jobs coming into Onlinetradesmen.com everyday in the form of solar, heat pump, wood pellet and more - but tradesmen are telling us that the overall demand from property owners (from all sources including the SEI installer listing) isn't enough to base a successful business on.

So what are your thoughts on this ? Personally I would love to see additional changes to make adoption of sustainable technology more widespread in the domestic and commercial sector. I guess with the current status of the state coffers however, this may be just a pipe dream.