Government backs Trinity research projects on wind farms, transport alternatives
Two projects from Trinity College Dublin’s School of Engineering have been awarded more than €800,000 in grants by the government through the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI).
Prof Breiffni Fitzgerald was awarded €200,000 to lead the TwinFarm project, which will use data-driven modelling and real-time monitoring techniques to develop digital twins of wind farms, while Prof Brian Caulfield was awarded €611,000 to lead the TRAnsport Behaviour Change Trials (TRACT) project, co-funded by the Dept of Transport.
The energy sector accounts for 57% of Ireland’s total greenhouse gas emissions, and to meet climate goals this must be decarbonised as quickly as possible. Wind energy currently provides 86% of Ireland’s renewable electricity, so improvements in performance in this sub-sector could have an important impact.
Ireland saw a slight reduction in carbon dioxide emissions from energy use in 2020, but less than the amount demanded every year from 2021 to 2030 to meet long-term decarbonisation goals.
Prof Fitzgerald’s TwinFarm aims to improve wind farm performance, prevent costly failures/downtime and predict fatigue loads across operational wind farms.
Prof Fitzgerald said: “These are exciting research projects in the field of wind energy that will address key problems faced by the industry related to the overall reliability of the infrastructure and the cost of wind energy. The projects build on work that we have pioneered in the Dept of Civil Engineering and complement ongoing research projects in the department.”
Prof Fitzgerald is also a project partner on two other new SEAI-supported projects (WindLEDeRR and RemoteWind) with partners from UCD, NUI Galway and UCC.
The TRACT project, led by Prof Caulfield, will examine the ability of mobility hubs and behavioural nudges to promote the switch to electric vehicles, with the goal of decarbonising the transport sector. The project involves collaborators from Trinity’s Schools of Computer Science & Statistics, and Psychology. FreeNow Ireland, Nissan Ireland, Bleeper, Toyota (YUKO), easygo.ie, Transpoco and Smart Dublin have joined as industry partners.
The 2021 Climate action plan set out targets to decarbonise the transportation sector. Two of the largest policy tools in the plan are to increase the number of electric vehicles on our roads and to have an extra 500,000 trips per day by non-car modes. The TRACT project will seek to examine how both of these goals can be achieved using trials of new transport technologies.
Prof Caulfield said: “These two new projects add to an already rich portfolio of research projects being led from our department that are addressing climate change.
“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. The first will seek to reduce car trips by promoting the use of active modes, shared cars and public transport. The second trial will seek to promote the transition to electric mobility by examining issues such as range anxiety, charging infrastructure and cost.
“One of the sectors this trial will focus upon is the electrification of the taxi fleet. FreeNow, a project partner, will promote the smart phone app developed for this project to its over 14,000 taxi drivers.”
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