Openhydro claims top accolades for innovation
Tidal energy developer OpenHydro, a DCNS company, has secured top honours at this year’s Engineers Ireland Excellence Awards and SEAI Sustainable Energy Awards.
The County Louth based company OpenHydro won the Tech Innovation Award for its Turbine Control Centre, designed at the company’s Research & Development (R&D) Technology Centre based in Carlingford, Co. Louth, while employee Andrew Carlisle secured the International Engineer of the Year award.
Commenting the news, James Ives, Chief Executive at OpenHydro didn’t hide his pleasure :
“We are delighted to receive these awards which acknowledge how ground-breaking our technology is. We are now, with DCNS’ support, transitioning from research and development, to a company focused on industrial supply to our international projects.” Then he added :
“OpenHydro has nearly one gigawatt of project development in progress across multiple sites in Europe and North America. Over the coming months we plan to achieve industry firsts by delivering two of the world’s first grid connected tidal arrays in France and Canada.”
Originally from Belfast, Andrew’s role as technical authority on the project sees him leading a team of engineers, with responsibility for ensuring the technical performance of all aspects of the project.
Commenting on achieving this top award, Andrew Carlisle said :
“I am delighted to have won the International Engineer of the Year Award. It is a great honour and is further recognition of the exciting, innovative and cutting edge opportunities OpenHydro is offering its workforce. I’ve been working in Nova Scotia for over a year now and am really enjoying living here. It’s a fascinating project to work on.”
The Engineers Ireland Excellence Awards, now in its sixth year, recognises the high quality work of Irish engineers and engineering projects both in Ireland and abroad.
The SEAI Sustainable Energy Awards recognise excellence in energy in businesses, communities and public sector organisations, with innovation at the heart of the competition.
