In Brief

The Challenge

Ireland has committed to completely decarbonising its energy grid by 2050, basing power generation capacity on renewable resources such as wind and solar. These are highly variable and intermittent energy sources that pose challenges to energy grid management. These challenges include ensuring that there is sufficient power on the grid at a given moment to power the country, as well as maximising the use of the renewable energy that is generated. This project will develop state-of-the-art modelling tools for estimation of the power generation capacity of renewables in real time. This will assist in optimising electricity grid preparedness for bringing additional renewable energy generation capacity on stream and accelerate the transition to the re-powering of Ireland using green energy sources. 

The Solution

We will engage with multiple stakeholders such as Met Eireann, wind farm operators, and solar energy producers to build a comprehensive database of information on wind and solar resources. We will develop novel data-driven spatio-temporal statistical models to estimate wind and solar resources at a 15-minute level at a refined spatial resolution nationwide. This will advance the existing state-of-the-art in estimation of solar and wind energy resources in an Irish context substantially, where only annualised estimates are currently available. The outputs of our models will assist in faster feasibility evaluations for both wind farm and solar energy sites, as well as enhanced estimation of renewable energy generation potential to aid in grid management in real time. 

The Team 

  • Team Lead: Prof. James Sweeney, University of Limerick 
  • Team Co-Lead: Dr Vikram Pakrashi, University College Dublin  

Societal Impact Champion

  • Lughaidh O'Broin