Greetings.
I’m delighted to say that there’s been an uptick of new subscribers to SDG Alpha, so I wanted to take an opportunity to welcome you if this is the first issue you’ve received (👋 hello!), and also to take a minute to re-state my intentions for the newsletter. Once a fortnight (with sporadic breaks), I gather together useful resources and news items from the worlds of Innovation, Impact Investing, and Sustainability - with a particular focus on what's going on in the Irish ecosystem. This is a fairly broad goal, but I'm mostly drawn to the place where innovation meets the UN Sustainable Development Goals - it’s where impact entrepreneurship meets impact investment.
This directly relates to the “Alpha” of the newsletter title. Why Alpha? It's a term from the world of financial markets, referring to abnormal returns that beat market expectation. I use it to refer to innovation which transforms the ability of an individual, company, or an entire industry to achieve an SDG target.
The goal of the newsletter is to be action-focused - my aim is to feature content that shows a pathway for entrepreneurs, researchers, policy makers, and investors to connect innovation with impact (call it pragmatic optimism), and I've been very fortunate that so many individuals from those spheres are part of this newsletter audience today!
I’m always curious about what brings readers here, or if there’s particular focus areas that you feel aren’t getting enough coverage, so please don’t hesitate to drop me a note if you’ve any feedback or suggestions.
And with that, on with the show.
Here’s the news round-up for Issue 65:
I’ll kick off as usual with funding updates, and the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF) grabbed headlines this week with several climate adjacent investment funds receiving allocations: a €200M investment in Copenhagen Infrastructure V; €50M investment in Impax New Energy Investors IV Fund; and $30M investment in ArcTern Ventures Fund III (details here) — ISIF also made a €15M investment into Hatch’s Blue Revolution Fund.
Elgin Energy, the Irish HQ’d solar energy developer, has announced a new round of funding, securing a €292M investment from Copenhagen Investment Partners, the Denmark fund managers who received a chunk of cash from ISIF mentioned above.
I featured an interview with MyGug co-founder Fiona Kelleher back in Issue 50, so I was pleased to hear last week that the company has raised €900K from BVP and Enterprise Ireland for their anaerobic digestion solution targeting food solution and hospitality sectors - congrats 🥳
Our partners at Bord na Móna had a few pieces in the news as well this week: first up, an announcement of a new onshore wind JV with SSE Renewables, which aims to deliver 800MW of power across several projects in pre-planning stages; separately, Bord na Móna announced that the Edenderry peaker plant will be connected to the gas network, allowing the diesel-fuelled power station transition first to natural gas, and ultimately biomethane and green hydrogen, as these options become available. (Interested in what else Bord na Móna are up to? Pop along to the Accelerate Green Conference on May 23rd, and find out).
Staying with wind, but moving offshore, and Codling Wind Park (a 50/50 joint venture between Fred. Olsen Seawind and EDF Renewables) are getting some media attention as they finalise final design plans ahead of submitting a planning application for what will become Ireland’s largest offshore wind project.
Gore Street Energy continue their activity on this island, with the UK-based energy investment managers adding to their storage portfolio with the announcement of the acquisition of three BESS projects from Low Carbon.
While Heron Storage and Heron Energy, two Northern Ireland based energy developers, have applied to bring a new 50MW BESS online in Co. Tyrone.
Simply Blue Group, the Cork HQ’d renewable energy development specialists, announced their involvement with three new onshore energy projects geared towards the production of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), with a target of producing 500,000 tonnes of SAF annually.
With friends like these… 😬 Mainstream Renewable Power, one of Ireland’s most high-profile renewable energy developers, may or may not be headed towards the market, as its majority shareholder, Aker Horizons, continue to streamline their portfolio of investments. Here’s a beauty of a quote from an analyst tracking Aker’s options:
“While Mainstream could also be a candidate for a divestment, we believe its convoluted portfolio structure and weak profitability make it significantly harder to come to an agreement with potential buyers on price,”
Moving on to some research funding calls and awards: first, the EPA have announced details of their 2024 Research Call, with €14.5M of grant funding on offer across a broad range of climate related themes. Closing date for applications is May 30th.
Ministers McConalogue and Muir, the respective Ministers with responsibility for agriculture in the Republic and Northern Ireland, jointly announced a new €9M fund to support the all-island development of agri-bioeconomy and blue bioeconomy demonstrator initiatives. There’s a predictably dense and vague description on the website of what these ‘demonstrator initiatives’ might entail, so if you’re interested in learning more it’s probably best to head to the in-person information session in Hillsborough on the 19th of April, ahead of the 7th of June application deadline.
The ESB have partnered with TCD’s ADAPT and CONNECT research centres to explore challenges around how Large Energy Users interact with the energy system in Ireland; specifically, the research will focus on how building new predictive models can assist with optimising energy demand, as well as exploring how blockchain technology might assist with increasing the usefulness of Guaranteed Origin green energy.
OK, it’s time to get voting for an exciting Irish entry in a European contest… No, of course it’s not time for EuroVision (which is only 32 days away!), but you can still get excited about helping Wild Atlantic Nature win the 2024 Natura 2000 Award!
There’s a fascinating profile piece in The Irish Times about the founder of Eastgate Engineering, David Brennan: while it is a paid promotional piece by Waterford City and County Council, I think it really highlights how much the renewable energy opportunity means to regional economies. Brennan’s ambition for Eastgate Engineering is striking, and look no further than their involvement with the Dogger Bank offshore wind farm as evidence of this.
And, more evidence of how Ireland’s industrial strategy for offshore renewable energy is transforming our regions: here’s a fly-by of progress on the redevelopment of the railway line between Limerick and Shannon Foynes Port.
There’s always a rush to get events and conferences over and done with before the summer break, so expect to be inundated in the coming weeks. Here’s a selection (in no particular order) that look particularly interesting — starting with a webinar on April 9th, where the AgTechUCD Innovation Centre at UCD Lyons Farm will discuss the Food and Agriculture Sustainable Technology Innovation Programme (FAST-IP).
Interested in the current and future regulatory and policy frameworks for offshore wind in Ireland? Well, of course you are, and the IFPA have an event in store for you: their in-person seminar takes place on April 11th.
Munster Technological University (MTU) are the Irish partners in the MainstreamBIO project, a Horizon Europe funded consortium working to improve the uptake of bio-based solutions in Europe’s innovation ecosystem: they’re hosting a webinar on April 10th to introduce the concept of the Circular Bioeconomy.
Maynooth University Social Sciences Institute and TCD are hosting a seminar on April 11th which will examine the concept of climate migration, and while it’s not strictly an event, I’ll add in here that the Mary Robinson Foundation are running an intensive 8-month programme which is designed to develop 50 young climate leaders, and no doubt the programme will have a strong focus on climate justice at its heart. Application closing date for the Climate Leader programme is April 22nd.
Very closely related to the climate migration seminar mentioned above, the EPA will host a public lecture on April 23rd which will examine Climate Change and Human Health.
Big one coming up on May 2nd and 3rd, with Wind Energy Ireland hosting their annual offshore event, with a strong speaker line-up already announced. Wind Energy Ireland’s CEO, Noel Cunniffe, was recently a guest on the Five Degrees of Change podcast, and it’s a really excellent episode, well worth a listen.
The ESB and the Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA) are running a full-day conference exploring Ireland’s progress towards a clean energy future: tickets for ACCELERATE: The Transition to a Net Zero Future are available now, the event takes place on April 26th.
And if you happen to be in the Midlands on April 17th, you’ll have an opportunity to see two of the best-informed, strongly-opinionated, and highly-entertaining speakers on the topic of renewable energy this nation has to offer when Bord na Móna’s John Reilly, and the human dynamo that is Catherine Sheridan take the stage at Farming Renewable Energy Industry Summit 2024. Bring popcorn; expect sparks.
Two job opportunities to close things out: first, Social Enterprise Republic of Ireland (SERI), have a position available for their Membership & Operations Manager (apply by April 17th); while TASC (the Irish think-tank for action on social change) are hiring a Researcher to join their Climate Justice Stream (apply by April 22nd).