The Opportunities of Energy Storage in Northern Ireland
Action Renewables Energy Association (AREA) was pleased to host ‘The Opportunities of Energy Storage’ seminar, held at The Doyen on the 23rd January 2018. In total, the event was attended by 55 members and invited guests.
Five guest speakers attended the seminar; Andy Frew from Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE), Dr Patrick Keatley from University of Ulster, Eddie McGoldrick from PowerOn Technologies, Phil Whitby from Arbarr Electronics and David Surplus from B9 Energy Storage.
Industry speakers
Kicking-off the event was Andy Frew, Technical Innovation Manager at NIHE, who highlighted the importance of energy storage. Currently, NIHE run both fuel poverty and energy-saving schemes and have a large number of thermal storage systems installed. Andy noted that NIHE is keen to displace the use of stored fossil fuels with renewable electricity, ultimately to reduce both CO2 emissions and tenant bills.
University of Ulster’s Dr Patrick Keatley discussed Distributed Energy Resources in Northern Ireland and explained how decentralisation helps the penetration of renewables. Patrick discussed both centralised and decentralised power systems, highlighting the opportunities and benefits that decentralisation could present for Northern Ireland.
Eddie McGoldrick, Director at PowerOn Technologies, summarised current policy barriers and the opportunity of renewables. He marked the milestones in PowerOn’s journey so far, speaking about the Energy Storage platform approach they have adopted, and the work they are doing with University of Ulster ‘Spire-2’ and Invest NI.
Arbarr Electronics was next to present. Marketing Specialist from Arbarr, Phil Whitby, talked about the company’s experience with installing battery storage technology. He highlighted the significance of their Power Silo, which was installed at CREST in Enniskillen. Phil also drew upon the company’s history with LiFePo4, outlining the benefits associated with the technology.
Closing the event was David Surplus, Director of B9 Energy Storage. He discussed the company’s participation in the EU project ‘STORY’. As part of this project, B9 is using Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) to help operate a managed grid connection at Lecale, near Downpatrick. In addition, David also spoke about B9’s involvement in ‘Renewable Engine’, an EU Project developing underground storage for compressed air energy and gravitational potential energy.
As the seminar came to a close, all attendees had the opportunity to participate in a Q&A session with the panel of guest speakers.
Future events
The next AREA seminar, ‘Brexit and the Energy Market’ will take place on 28th March 2018. If you would like to find out more about joining Action Renewables Energy Association, you can get in touch at area@actionrenewables.co.uk