Trinity’s School of Engineering will receive over €1 million for two research projects focused on transport decarbonisation and wind energy efficiency.
The research will be funded through the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI), which invests in sustainable solutions to “aid Ireland’s transition to a clean energy future”.
Professor Brian Caulfield will receive €611,000 to lead the Transport Behaviour Change Trials (TRACT) project, which will be co-funded by the Department of Transport. FreeNow Ireland, Nissan Ireland, Bleeper, Toyota, easygo.ie, Transpoco and Smart Dublin are among the companies that are partnering with Caulfield.
The research aims to help Ireland meet its 2021 climate action plan targets of one million privately owned electric vehicles and an additional 500,000 non-car trips per day by 2030.
In a press statement, Caulfield said: “The TRACT project brings together a wide variety of partners and academics from different disciplines to examine methods to decarbonise how we travel and will have two 18-month trials.”
FreeNow Ireland Head of Operations and Public Affairs Fiona Brady added: “Decarbonisation of the transport sector is key to a sustainable future for all of us.
“We are committed to enabling and empowering passengers across the country to make sustainable decisions when it comes to meeting their daily transport requirements.”
The project will examine the ability of mobility hubs and nudges to promote the switch to electric vehicles, and will collaborate with the Trinity schools of Computer Science and Statistics as well as Psychology to do so.
The second project, led by Professor Breiffni Fitzgerald, is to be awarded €200,000 by SEAI. Fitzgerald said his “Twinfarm” project “will address key problems faced in the industry related to the overall reliability of the infrastructure and the cost of wind energy.”
The energy sector accounts for 57 per cent of Ireland’s total greenhouse emissions, with wind energy currently providing 86 per cent of renewables.
The project will utilise data-driven modelling and real-time monitoring techniques to develop digital twins of wind farms. The new wind energy research project will also benefit from an additional €200,000 from additional partnerships.
Fitzgerald is also a project partner on two other SEAI grants with partners from University College Dublin (UCD), NUI Galway and University College Cork (UCC).
The “two new projects add to an already rich portfolio of research projects being led from our department that are addressing climate change,” Caulfield said.
Ireland’s energy sector saw a slight reduction in CO2 emissions in 2020, but less than what is required on average to fulfil long-term decarbonisation goals.
