€8 Million in Government Funding Awarded by SEAI to Innovative Energy Research Projects
The Government has announced €8 million in funding to support 45 innovative energy projects in companies and research institutions across Ireland. The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) is responsible for awarding the funding to the 45 projects which aim to develop solutions that will help our homes, businesses and communities deliver a cleaner energy future. The projects range in duration from one to four years.
Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Denis Naughten TD said: “Research and innovation are central pillars of the Government’s National Energy and Climate Plan. I have secured increased levels of funding for investment in energy research through SEAI. I am determined to see this fund grow significantly over the coming years to develop innovative solutions. This type of government funding significantly helps businesses and research institutions in the energy sector in Ireland to conduct world class research that will create jobs, build capacity and support innovation in clean energy.”
Discussing the funding programme, Jim Gannon, CEO of SEAI, said: “New solutions and new technologies are central to achieving a sustainable energy future for Ireland. With direct involvement from industry, academia and local enterprises, the 45 projects we are funding will deliver real solutions to problems that the energy sector is facing today. These projects will facilitate innovation in the energy market, inform policy, and develop the technical solutions we need to create a thriving and efficient clean energy sector.”
A project led by Dr Miriam Byrne in NUI Galway is among those to receive funding. Working in collaboration with researchers in University College Dublin (UCD), the NUIG team, are investigating the effectiveness of ventilation systems in A-rated energy efficient homes. Good ventilation is critical for a healthy home. The study will monitor air quality in 100 A-rated homes and assess the comfort and satisfaction of homeowners.
The largest developer and operator of renewable generation in Ireland, SSE Airtricity working with CeADAR (Centre for Advanced Data Analytics Research) at UCD, will employ state of the art Artificial Intelligence (AI) to optimise renewable energy producers forecasting ability. The aim of the project is to reduce volatility in the wholesale energy market making it more cost effective for renewable energy producers to participate and ultimately lower energy prices for consumers.
A collaborative project involving Gas Networks Ireland, IFA, ICMAS, Teagasc, and a number of other community groups, local authorities and academics, plans to develop a model for regional anaerobic digester (AD) clusters. If successful the model will facilitate access to the gas network and diversify income streams for farmers.
To find out more about SEAI’s research funding go to www.seai.ie. The 2019 SEAI RD&D Funding Programme Call will open for applications in Quarter 4 2018.
SEAI’s RD&D Funding Programme
The 2018 SEAI RD&D Funding Programme received cross-sectoral support from the following organisations in the form of co-funding partnerships: The Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport; Met Éireann; The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine; The Marine Institute; The Environmental Protection Agency; and Gas Networks Ireland.
2018 Awarded Projects
| Project Title | Lead Organisation |
| Agri Bio Circular Economy (ABC Economy) | UCD |
| CAO IRL Coupled Atmosphere Ocean Wave Forecasts for Ireland | NUIG |
| Mitigation of Air Pollution Impacts of Irish Heavy Duty Vehicles (MAP-HDV) | TCD |
| DiSTRaCT: moDal ShifT Reduce Carbon in Transport | TCD |
| Low Cost Monitoring and Control of Small Scale Renewables | Electricity Exchange DAC. |
| Urban Building Energy Model | UCD |
| Dublin Region Energy Masterplan | CODEMA |
| Brightwind I-SEM Forecast | Brightwind Limited |
| BIO-RPISM: biofuel production, digestate purification and CO2 sequestration with highly productive auto-floating microalgae technology | NUIG |
| Reducing Energy Consumption in Air Filtration Systems (RECAFS) | TCD |
| AgrigasGrid | Renewable Gas Forum Ireland |
| Agricultural Energy Optimisation Platform (AEOP) | CIT |
| Assessment of VentilAtion effectiveness via a Longitudinal indoor environmental study in ‘A’ rated Irish Dwellings: VALIDate | NUIG |
| GEBTechTM (Green Energy Boosting Technology): A novel treatment for farm slurries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to generate energy | Westway Health |
| Slurres Pilot | UL |
| Building Upon Ireland’s National Renovation Strategy | Irish Green Building Council |
| Robust Real-Time Wind Power Prediction and Early, Accurate Estimation of Downtime for Irish Wind Farms in an Integrated Single Electricity Market (Wind-PEarlAED) | UCD |
| Retrokit 2.0 – A Cloud-Based Project Planning and Implementation Toolkit to Foster the Uptake of Deep Energy Retrofit in Housing. | XD Sustainable Energy Consulting Ltd |
| Exploration of Air Source Heat Pumps for Ireland’s Residential Heating Needs | UCD |
| Fundamental Information for Technology Commercialisation of Lignocellulosic Waste to Liquid Transportation Fuels by Acid Hydrolysis | TCD |
| Quantifying Light Loss across Ireland and Identifying Patterns of Energy Use | TCD |
| The Aeration In-Use Factor: The in-use aeration energy efficiency of two technologies in the wastewater treatment industry | NUIG |
| Enhanced Controllers to Improve Wind Farm Efficiency | TCD |
| Using Surplus Energy to generate Hydrogen; (USE H2) | DCU |
| EnergyPOLITIES: Politico-institutional framing of collective engagements with the energy system | UCC |
| Digi Blocks | CIT |
| Next generation modular energy generating greenhouse (NGMEGG) | NUIG |
| Using blockchains to facilitate renewable power generation: forecasting, hedging and tokenisation applications | UCD |
| Biomass Practitioners Register | IrBEA |
| Indoor air quality, ventilation and occupant comfort in Irish domestic dwelling’s pre and post Deep Energy renovations | NUIG |
| Exergyn Heat Pump | Exergyn |
| Enhancement of Inertial Stabilisation of the Electricity Grid using Local Electrochemical Processes for Load Levelling | UL |
| Co-invest | Tipperary Energy Agency |
| The True Cost of the Energy – Water Nexus in Manufacturing. | Irish Manufacturing Research (IMR) |
| Assessment Methodology Building Energy Ratings (AMBER) | IES R&D |
| FactHP – In Use Factors for Heat Pumps and other energy technologies in Residential Buildings | LIT |
| Role of Heterogenous Energy Storage in Paris Aligned Scenarios for the Irish Energy System | DCU |
| Energy Renovation of Traditional Buildings – CPD roll-out | The Heritage Council |
| Trinity Smart Grid | TCD |
| Dundalk Virtual Energy Microgrid (DVEM) | Dundalk IT |
| nZEB_101 | UCD |
| FREMI (Forecasting Renewable Energy with Machine Intelligence) | SSE Airtricity |
| Continuous Commissioning to Create High Performance Buildings | Inferrit Limited |
| Identifying the relative and combined impact and importance of a range of curtailment mitigation options on high RES-E systems in 2030 & 2040 | Mullan Grid Consulting |
| Support tools for community renewable energy | MaREI, UCC |
