RECAST: Forecasting Renewable Energy Potential in Ireland’s Changing Climate

Project Description

The RECAST project will explore how climate change might affect Ireland’s renewable energy resources - wind, solar, and wave power - up to the year 2100. Using the most advanced future climate data available, RECAST will predict how Ireland’s ability to generate renewable energy could change in the coming decades by assessing how much energy can be produced in the future and how reliable and stable these energy sources will be over time. A key innovation of RECAST is its focus on offshore wind and wave energy—areas that have been under-studied in Ireland, despite their enormous potential. Ireland has some of the best wind and wave energy resources in the world, especially off the west coast, and RECAST will be the first to study how this might change in a warming climate. RECAST also examines how combinations of renewable sources—like wind and solar together—can balance each other out to create a more stable power supply. This will help address one of the biggest challenges in using renewable energy: its variability. By also looking at extreme weather events like storms and calms, RECAST will help Ireland plan for a future where renewable energy is both sustainable and dependable.