A major windfarm project off Connemara has been withdrawn, but two emerging technologies could provide future alternative solutions for harnessing the Atlantic's renewable energy off Ireland's west coast. Article by Dr. Ross O'Connell.

At the 2025 EERA DeepWind Conference in Norway last week, Dr. Ross O'Connell had the opportunity to present on the Wet Storage study currently nearing completion at MaREI. Feedback on this presentation was very positive and a high level of interest was expressed in the study topic, including future applications to other regions around Europe. Wet storage is expected to be particularly relevant for large-scale FLOW projects in areas where the wave climate (and hence weather window availability) are of a greater concern, such as Atlantic coasts. The conference was also a great opportunity to meet and hear presentations from other leading researchers in this field, getting a live update in R&I for FLOW around the globe.

Dr. Jimmy Murphy has been banging on people’s doors for almost 30 years about coastal erosion and the impact it has on people and places. More attention, effort and funding is now been given to protecting our coastline, he says as part of the Evening Echo's Cork Coast series.

Cork can become a leader in wave energy, says Dr. Ross O'Connell, who tells us about Ireland’s potential to develop Offshore Renewable Energy as part of the Evening Echo's Cork Coast series.

A new UCC led project MARINERG-i will help to realise the vast potential of offshore renewable energy. MARINERG-i will be an Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Distributed Research Infrastructure (DRI). With a network of world-class testing facilities spread across Europe, MARINERG-i is setting out to become the leading DRI in the ORE sector globally. 

The MaREI project is focused on finding suitable points for wet storage, a key requirement for facilitating floating offshore wind.

Selkie researchers win MaREI Project of the Year 2022 at the MRIA forum in Dublin. The Marine Renewables Industry Association (MRIA) represents companies and interests in Ireland and Northern Ireland in the Marine Renewables Emerging Technologies (MRET) sector. The Marine Renewables Emerging Technologies, MRIA’s area of concern, include ocean energy and floating offshore wind energy as well as ‘hybrids’ (energy convertors which combine wave and floating wind devices).