Research & Innovation

BrightWind has secured €162,000 in funding from the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) to support the company in building a new wind and solar resource data management platform. The platform will be used by researchers to enable them to better understand Ireland’s wind and solar power and thus contribute to the generation of solutions to help reach the ambitious targets set out in the Government’s Climate Action Plan.

BrightWind, a renewable energy consultancy firm, was founded in 2015 with a core competency in wind resource assessment, and is headquartered at NovaUCD, the Centre for New Ventures and Entrepreneurs at University College Dublin. In addition to the platform the funding will support BrightWind in building an open-source data analysis Python library, to enable industry co-operation and research activities through easy access of wind and solar data.

Stephen Holleran, Co-founder and Director, BrightWind, said: “The open wind and solar data which we will gather in the new platform will contribute to research essential for meeting the Irish Government’s Climate Action Plan target of 70% of electricity generation to come from renewable sources by 2030. It will do this by contributing to research in wind power forecasting to enable higher penetration of wind on the electricity system and for reducing the uncertainty in long-term energy yield predictions of wind farms.”

The BrightWind project is one of 50 cutting-edge research, development and demonstration energy projects which are receiving a total of €11 million in funding and were announced recently by the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Richard Bruton TD.

Dr Phil Hemmingway, Head, SEAI’s Low Carbon Technology Department, said: “The All of Government Climate Action Plan commits Ireland to significant targets and ambitions in the energy sector. Disruptive innovation will be critical for meeting these targets and for achieving Ireland’s medium and long-term decarbonisation.”

“Ireland’s energy system will undergo a rapid, continual and significant evolution during the period 2020 to 2030 and beyond. Projects such as these are at the forefront of knowledge development. I would like to congratulate the teams behind the successful projects, and look forward to seeing the outcomes, which will help to lead us to our cleaner energy future.”

Demonstrating its commitment to climate action BrightWind has pledged 1% of its annual revenue to nature-based solutions for biodiversity loss, native tree deforestation and climate change. The Brightwind team recently spent a day planting native trees at Moy Hill Farm, County Clare.

To find out more about the company’s commitment watch this short video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MPn6xoMBLM