DkIT Win Significant Funding for Offshore Renewable Energy Research

Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT) are delighted to report that two of their esteemed researchers from the School of Engineering, Dr Fergal O’Rourke and Dr Peter Ryan recently received significant funding of €249,106 plus overheads of €54,331 for their Floating Offshore Measurement Platform project. This financial support is part of funding recently announced by Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Simon Harris TD and is funded by the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility.

Offshore renewable energy resources are vast and are largely underexploited. This is in part due to the harsh operating environment and a lack of critical key measured data to inform system designs. This project by Fergal and Peter focuses on the development of a floating offshore measurement platform. The floating measurement device will boast a range of state-of-the-art measurement techniques to measure wind, wave and tidal energy resource characteristics, in addition to other environmental conditions. The system proposed in this winning project will have a considerable impact on the rate of development of marine renewable energy. For example, the offshore renewable energy targets set out by the Irish government are ambitious and will require ways to accelerate marine energy development.

Dr Fergal O’Rourke, Dr Breda Brennan, Head of School of Engineering, Dr Peter Ryan

Minister Harris said of the selected teams for funding,

“We see examples in the news most days of why Ireland needs to work at the green transition and digital transformation and ensure that our innovation and research prepare the country for the future.  In fact, the solutions being worked on in all eight challenges in the National Challenge Fund have the potential not just to improve life here in Ireland, but across Europe and around the world.”

Science Foundation Ireland Director General Philip Nolan said: “SFI is very pleased with the response to the National Challenge Fund calls and we are happy to be supporting these teams as they embark on an intense period of engaged research, refining and validating their solutions.  The individual problems these teams have identified tally closely with some of the submissions we received from the public during the Creating Our Future campaign, so I look forward to seeing these ideas developed in ways that can improve everyday life in Ireland.”