Innovation
At FuturEnergy Ireland, we have an important role to play in the transformation of Ireland to a carbon neutral economy.
To make this happen, we are constantly looking at ways to push ourselves that little bit further to find new solutions, adopt cutting-edge technology, refine our working practices, build relationships with local communities and respect the natural environment.
Innovation is at the very heart of what we do.
Technology
Energy Storage
At FuturEnergy Ireland, we don’t just think about what technology the power system requires today. Our team is always trying to look to the future and understand the solutions we require if we are to deliver a fully decarbonised power system.
Some of the key challenges we foresee are:
- Grid capacity Sometimes we have more wind energy available in a region than the electrical lines can carry.
- Oversupply In the future we expect the amount of available wind energy will exceed our demand for electricity for many hours in the year.
- Clean, stored power, ready to go When the wind isn’t blowing and the sun isn’t shining, and we will need a source of clean dispatchable power to fill these gaps.
Our team is working with emerging low-cost, long-duration energy storage technologies to help address these issues. These long-duration storage technologies can absorb excess renewable energy for up to 100 hours and store this for later use at times when the wind isn’t blowing.
This exciting and progressive portfolio will go a long way to address Ireland’s energy needs. For more, please visit our Battery Energy Storage page.
Recreation
Our recreational offering
As part of our ethos, we investigate the potential for new recreation, or enhancing existing recreation, with communities local to a proposed wind farm development who would like to see this happen. This depends on site suitability and community feedback and is assessed on a case-by-case basis in collaboration with all stakeholders.
The FuturEnergy Ireland team was involved with setting up a recreational amenity at Sliabh Bawn Wind Farm in Co Roscommon, which is popular with both locals and tourists alike. In 2023, the wind farm welcomed more than 22,000 visitors.
As part of our core recreational offering, we explore the following options:
- Parking for ease of access
- Upgraded tracks and trails
- Waymarked looped trails
- Educational boards highlighting points of historic and cultural interest
- Biodiversity areas
- Viewing points
- Picnic areas
The opportunity to create a recreational space on our wind farms is exciting and there are many avenues to explore. If this is of interest to the local community, we would encourage members to work with us and help to inform the design.
To check the status of a recreation project on a wind farm near you, please visit the project website.
Education
FuturEnergy Ireland has embedded a holistic approach to education across our community engagement programmes to encourage people to learn more about climate change, the environment and the renewable energy transition.
Our education programmes can be tailored to any age group, from primary level students to active retirement groups.
If you are interested in taking part, please email community@futurenergyireland.ie
National schools education programme
FuturEnergy Ireland has partnered with Biodiversity in Schools to offer Bosca Dúlra to primary schools near our projects. Each Bosca Dúlra, or Nature Box, is an innovative and fun nature toolkit that helps children explore biodiversity all year round.
Another option is Climate-in-a-Box, a series of five interactive lessons on climate and sustainability supplied by Steam Education.
Our Community Liaison Offers are also available to run fun, interactive workshops that cover topics including the climate crisis, renewable energy and potential career options.
Secondary school education programme
'Renewable Energy & Your Future', an educational programme in areas where we have live projects, has proved popular with students and teachers alike.
This workshop involves our Community Liaison Officers running an interactive presentation geared towards Transition Year students and with an emphasis on the new ‘climate jobs’ market. This may also be accompanied by a trip to a wind farm.
Generation Change
Last year, we launched the youth advocacy programme Generation Change, which is designed to help young people learn more about renewable energy in a non-formal education setting.
This free programme, which runs over three weekly workshops, is the first of its kind in the wind sector and encourages young people to develop local action projects based around the renewable energy transition. Through these projects, young people will be challenged to engage with local representatives and to take part in the decision-making process. Generation Change is aimed at existing youth groups and is directly delivered by experienced FuturEnergy Ireland staff.
“Thanks again for a lovely STEAM Education resource. I found the content and layout excellent so well done to all involved in the planning and development of these wonderful sessions."
"Our school was thrilled to be involved in this initiative and would recommend it to other schools as a way of teaching an important topic in a highly engaging way."
"This is an excellent programme for both children and teachers. It is very user-friendly with well-developed resources and a wide range of activities for the children to engage with."
"Many thanks for delivering an excellent presentation to the girls and for organising our visit to the wind farm. The girls truly loved it."
"The children loved the hands-on nature of the tasks and found the lessons both engaging and fascinating."
Biodiversity Initiatives
The Hare's Corner Project
FuturEnergy Ireland is proud to sponsor The Hare’s Corner, a BurrenBeo Trust initiative that offers landowners practical support to enhance biodiversity on their land through the creation of habitats such as ponds, native orchards and mini woodlands.
In 2023, we sponsored the pilot programme in Co Clare. This year, the Hare's Corner has expanded and FuturEnergy Ireland is supporting the initiative in Co Leitrim.
The term ‘Hare’s Corner’ comes from an old rural expression to describe small, ‘awkward’ sections of a field –corners, slopes, wet patches -which were difficult to manage and so were ‘left to nature’, a welcome sanctuary for hares and other wild plants and animals.
The Hare’s Corner is a simple way to help farmers and landowners address the climate and biodiversity crises without a lot of extra work or footing the bill. The transformation of these pockets of land improves farmland biodiversity and increases our resilience against climate change, for example by providing shade and water for cattle at times of drought and by improving water quality.
We are looking forward to providing funding for Hare’s Corner projects in Co Leitrim in 2024. We all need to play our part in addressing climate change and every little helps. If you would like to take part or for more information, please visit https://burrenbeo.com/thc/
If you are interested in any of these educational programmes or require further information, please email community@futurenergyireland.ie
