Clean Technology

Ireland has proven itself over many decades to be one of the most productive, profitable and business friendly locations for investments by multinational corporations in a wide range of high technology sectors. These include Information Communication Technologies, Pharmaceuticals, Biopharmaceuticals and Medical Devices to name just a few. Ireland believes it can bring the same attributes to achieve success for its clients in the rapidly emerging environmental/clean technology sectors.

What are the key activities?

Highlights of Irelands Clean Tech Industry

Wind Energy

•  Ireland has one o f the best wind energy resources in Europe and has installed wind turbines of 1,000MW in capacity with a further 3,700MW of applications filed to connect to the grid.
  
  
• A set incentive feed-in tariff of €63 per MW hour for onshore wind and €140 per MW hour for offshore wind is available.
   
• Wind Energy research and development work is being undertaken around the country including at Dundalk Institute of Technology, University College Cork, Trinity College Dublin and University College Dublin.

Ocean Energy

• Ireland has the highest w av e energy resource in Europe, with an estimated generation capacity of 60GW (1/5 of Europe ’s total resource).
  
  
• An incentive feed-in tariff of €220 per MW hour was introduced in 2008 and fixed for a period of 15 years.
  
  
• Companies including Ocean Energy, W av ebob and Hydam are developing and testing w av e energy prototypes at dedicated test sites around Ireland.  
  
  
• Examples of Ocean Energy research and development work in Ireland include turbine design at the University of Limerick , wave tank modelling at testing at University College Cork and wave energy modelling at Queens’ University in Belfast .

Solar Energy

• Driving solar activity development in Ireland is its widely respected experience in the information communication & technologies and engineering sectors.
  
  
• Companies like Intel, Analog Devices and Xilinx have built a cluster of advanced skills in materials and device development, semi-conductor manufacture, IC design and processor technologies.
  
  
• World-class research centres such as the Tyndall Institute at University College Cork and the Centre for Research on Adaptive Nanostructures and Nanodevices (CRANN) at Trinity College Dublin have research strands of key interest to the solar industry.
  
  
• University College Dublin has established a Strategic Research Cluster focusing on Advanced Biomimetic Materials for Solar Energy Conversion.

Bioenergy

• Ireland has significant potential to develop its bio-energy resources to generate electricity for use as transport fuels, for use in heating and cooling of buildings and for conversion to bio-chemicals as industrial raw materials.
  
  
• A Feed-in-tariff for Biomass (landfill gas) of 7.0 cent/kWh was established in 2007.

Energy Management

• Ireland has a strong competency mix of sensor, data management, technical support, project consultancy and smart building capabilities.
  
  
• Ireland has research strengths in thermal management at the University of Limerick and the Tyndall Institute as well as power electronics capabilities.
  
  
• Companies like IBM have linked up with Irish Researchers to form the Smart Bay Initiative which is developing and testing technologies to capture and monitor real-time information from a marine environment.