Renewables: from research to enterprise
A recent Department for Employment and Learning (DEL) report indicated that Northern Ireland is outperforming the rest of the UK in exploiting links between universities and industry. Yet there is still very compelling evidence of a gap between university research and genuine exploitation of those research outputs by local companies in the form of patents and spin outs. The Invest NI Competence Centre programme has been established to address the challenges of industry/university interfaces in the research arena over a number of specific sectors identified by MATRIX (the government science advisory panel) as forerunners in the drive for innovation.
The Centre for Advanced Sustainable Energy (CASE) has been set up under the Invest NI Competence Centre programme with an industry-driven research agenda across four main themes: turbines, grid integration and storage, energy efficiency, and energy from biomass. With a 40 per cent renewable energy target in Northern Ireland by 2020 equating to the connection of around 1,440MW of distributed renewable energy technology to a constrained grid, significant opportunities abound for Northern Ireland’s entrepreneurs. CASE has just launched the first call for collaborative projects in sustainable energy and will draw upon a £5 million research fund from Invest NI, as well as other leveraged funding through Europe.
The late 2012 announcement of the Crown Estate’s leases for 200MW of tidal energy has instigated the first CASE research project, led by local industry, funded by Invest NI and conducted by QUB. Testing of 1/10th scale tidal devices will soon commence in Strangford Lough. This world leading project and the subsequent building-out of the full scale tidal energy sites on the North Coast will open up significant avenues for a potential new marine energy supply chain. Northern Ireland companies are ideally placed to exploit these opportunities now.
Sam McCloskey
Centre for Advanced Sustainable Energy (CASE), David Keir Building, Stranmillis Road, Belfast, BT9 5AG
Tel: 028 9097 5577 Email: s.mccloskey@qub.ac.uk
