Evening. My goal today is to manage to get this newsletter out earlier than the 9pm benchmark I set last issue, so I’ll keep the intro short and sweet, and skip straight to the news round-up.
You should definitely read all the way to the end, though, as this issue sees the return of a really excellent Three, Sixty feature, so don’t forget to check it out!
Here’s the news round-up for Issue 61:
I typically start the round-up looking at the energy infrastructure sector, so it’s a novelty to be able to continue that tradition and to combine it with news from the Accelerate Green portfolio: NEG8 Carbon, the Direct Air Capture (DAC) carbon capture company who participated in Accelerate Green last year, announced their first commercial scale trial in partnership with the Canada-based DAC developer Deep Sky.
The ESB have announced that a new utility-scale BESS project at the Poolbeg Energy Hub has now begun operation; the project has capacity to provide 75MW over a two hour period.
NTR, the Irish renewable energy and infrastructure developer announced that they’ve secured a PPA with pharma company Almac for their 21.6-MW Murley Wind Farm project in Northern Ireland.
More wind energy, more offshore turbines, and now plans for more port facilities to enable all this growth: Cork Dockyard has been targeted for redevelopment by Doyle Shipping Group as a major Offshore Renewable Energy infrastructure hub.
And if you’re going to have more marine traffic, then they’re going to need a cleaner fuel source: interesting announcement from Catagen, who are part of a consortium which has been granted £482,000 to investigate the opportunity of bringing novel clean fuel production technology to market. The consortium, which includes partners the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC), Orkney Islands Council, Highland Fuels Limited, and Belfast Harbour Commissioners, was supported by the UK Department for Transport and Innovate UK.
And back to dry land: Nephin Renewable Gas is a newly announced spin-out from energy developer Nephin Energy (themselves the largest shareholder in the Corrib Gas Field), who have announced plans to build out Ireland’s largest network of anaerobic digestion (AD) plants.
Octopus Renewables Infrastructure Trust have announced the purchase of four solar farms from Statkraft Ireland; the solar farm complex close to Dublin has a 199MW capacity, with the transaction valued at €160M.
Waterford-based Enerpower have recently announced ambitious growth plans, following on from last year’s capital injection via the Greenvolt Group: the plans will see Enerpower install 500Mw of new renewable energy projects in the next five years. (Speaking of Waterford-based innovation, I’m seeking projects to apply for a fantastic innovation programme we’re delivering in partnership with the South East Technological University - closing date is Feb 23rd!).
Two renewable energy adjacent stories to close out this section: first, Cork-based BladeBridge have been nominated for the 2024 Green Alley Award to recognise their innovative use of decomissioned wind turbine blades to create beautiful and useful urban furniture and civic infrastructure - give them a vote now, and you can also read back over my interview with BladeBridge founder Dr. Angie Nagle from Issue 56.
And, with another tip of the hat to the evergrowing Accelerate Green family, there’s a fantastic interview in Silicon Republic with EpiSensor’s Brendan Carroll, which gives you a really good idea of the vision for the renewable energy market he shared with us during the first Accelerate Green programme.
Let’s change tracks, and take a look at the world of impact funding: first, the Foresight Group have announced that ISIF are allocating €25M to their SME Impact Fund, which was first announced in 2022. This funding comes on top of the initial €30M of cornerstone funding from AIB, as Foresight look to expand their activity and build their portfolio of low-carbon enabled companies in Ireland.
Moby, the Irish-based micro-mobility solutions company, have secured investment of €2.85M to fuel their expansion, as they look to enter new European markets, and continue developing innovative new solutions aimed at making it easier for riders to use dockless e-bike schemes.
And CitySwift, the Galway-based developer of transport data solutions, have raised further funding of €7M to scale their operations. The investment round was led by Gresham House Ventures.
And kudos to two start-ups at the very beginning of the journey, Moonsyst and PitSeal, who were selected for awards following their participation in the UCD Lyons Farm AgTechUCD Accelerator Programme.
Staying with early-stage, but moving from the land to the ocean, aquaculture start-up Sea&Believe have announced that they’ve commenced operations on their inaugural seaweed harvesting project in Connemara. The permitting process for these types of operations is extraordinarily challenging for early-stage companies to navigate, so this is a significant step for the company.
And, finally, if all this talk of building start-ups to save the world has you excited, you should definitely check out HACKTHECLIMATE, a climate-focused hackathon taking place at the MERITS Innovation Thinkspace in Kildare on Feb 23rd: it’s free to participate, but you absolutely have to register in advance!
To close out the issue, it's time for "Three, Sixty", where we pose three questions on the theme of sustainability to an impact entrepreneur or innovator, to get a better understanding in sixty seconds of how they're working to achieve the SDG targets. For Issue 61, I chatted with Roisin Mc Cormack, COO and co-founder at GKinetic Energy, an early-stage start-up who have developed a novel and highly efficient hydrokinetic turbine.
On a personal level, what impacts of the climate/biodiversity crisis are you most concerned about?
I honestly don't know where to start, the list is scarily long! Obviously global warming and the unnatural and unbalanced impacts that are already so evident all around us. Increase in natural weather disasters, flooding, extreme heatwaves. Uncertainty around future energy security, food supply and healthy, nutrient-rich and fertile soil. I feel like the human population's consumption and materialistic habits and the greed of corporations is pulling apart the very DNA and building blocks that make our world beautiful and without allowing this impending doom to make me go build an apocalyptic bunker in the Kerry mountains, it is quite frankly terrifying and very upsetting to me. These are the things keeping me up at night and that cause a little anxious twist in my stomach when I look at my daughter. I'm a composting, recycling, second-hand thrifting, sustainable-business seeking vegetarian that agonises over every purchase I make and I still feel a crushing, scary weight that we as a society as a whole have to do SO MUCH MORE and FAST! We just have to do better, we have to keep pushing for positive change.
Which of the UN SDGs did you start GKinetic to address?
SDG #7 'Affordable and Clean Energy' is our primary SDG that we set out to support. An abundance of clean, reliable energy is there to be unleashed from our free-flowing waterways, without the need for permanent infrastructure or dams. Specifically, our hydrokinetic solutions have been designed to work in harmony with nature and the surrounding ecosystem. Slow-moving turbines on a floating platform act as flexibly as a boat that can be moved and taken in and out, gently diverting water flow, fish, wildlife, recreational water users and debris out and away. Where there is a river, canal or estuary we make clean and affordable energy a viable option. The immediate positive impacts that a clean, steady supply of electricity bring to a business or community are truly transformational. Basic lighting and cooking for education, learning, healthy eating and safety. More economic growth and development creating employment thanks to secure energy supply to businesses. We believe everyone should have access to clean and affordable energy as a basic human right and the resources and solutions are there to make this possible.
How does your business model enable the transition to a low carbon, or more sustainable future?
Our business GKinetic offers a viable option for harnessing a clean, predictable energy supply from free flowing water assets such as rivers, canals and estuaries. Utilising this renewable resource complements other more intermittent assets such as solar and wind and in winter time in particular becomes an invaluable baseload supply that offers energy security and CO2 Emissions reductions for users. We empower people to future-proof their energy supply and remove reliance on the grid.