IEA Wind Task 41: Enabling distributed wind to contribute to Ireland’s energy future

Project Description

This project supports Ireland’s participation in the IEA Wind task 41 entitled “Enabling wind to contribute to a distributed energy future” and seeks to undertake research to contribute to the aims of this task and to enshrine outputs from the previous IEA Wind Task 27. This proposal aims to participate and contribute knowledge to the IEA Wind Task 41 and through that mechanism to other IEA tasks as well as to International Electrotechnical Committee (IEC) standards development, which are internationally strategically important. The Programme for government identifies that the participation in the European Green Deal will support areas which facilitate “structural shifts from decarbonisation” which this project aims to assist. In addition, it has the identified aim of supporting research to “ensure that Ireland is at the cutting edge of scientific and technological innovation in meeting our climate change targets” which this proposal again addresses through participation in International research exchange fora. Currently there are issues with grid-wide penetration of wind energy on an all island basis resulting in 12% of wind energy being “dispatched down” in 2020, according to Eirgrid. Distributed generation better matches the load to the resource locally and avoids constraint and curtailment issues, thereby assisting in achieving Ireland’s 2030 EU Climate framework requirements. Furthermore, the National Energy and Climate plan 2021-2030 identifies that Ireland’s participation in IEA activities in the 8 TCPs aligns with national strategic objectives related to renewable energy, and energy-related research.