This 6.7M Euro Interreg VA project will look at how energy storage resources owned by homeowners and businesses can resolve the problem of the variability of output from renewable energy. If consumers can store energy effectively, that will allow very high levels of renewables to be integrated into power grids globally, at the same time as putting consumers at the heart of the energy system.   

The project will create 16 PhD studentships and will further develop up to 8 post-doctoral researchers. By creating this supply of highly educated developers, able to transform research ideas into commercial reality, SPIRE 2 will also contribute significantly to local economic growth.  

The project involves collaboration between Ulster University, Queen’s University Belfast, Strathclyde University, Dundalk Institute of Technology and 12 businesses/ organisations via a cross-border Virtual Research Graduate School. 

Paul MacArtain, Ph.D., Director of Centre for Renewable Energy (CREDIT) at DkIT is the co-investigator on the SPIRE 2 project and Senior Research Fellow at Dundalk Institute of Technology.  Dr. MacArtain was awarded a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from NUI Dublin in 2004. He then worked with CyberColloids Ltd. as an InterTrade Ireland FUSION graduate before commencing as a project manager at CREDIT in 2006. He became research manager in 2008 and Senior Research Fellow at DkIT in 2013. He lectured in bioenergy on the M.Sc. in Renewable Energy Systems from 2006 to 2017. He is currently Centre Director of CREDIT.  

Working in renewable energy since 2006 Dr. MacArtain has participated in a number of INTERREG IVA funded projects in the renewable energy area including BioMara and the Energy Efficiency and Microgeneration project.  The SPIRE 2 area of research includes flow battery technologies on industrial sites and DkIT has both electrical and thermal energy storage at kWh scale on campus.  Operating these facilities will contribute to learning from the project.  

Speaking about the project, Paul MacArtain added, 

“Collaboration between research institutes and businesses is key to the success of this project and we are excited to be working with so many partner organisations. Working together, we can intensify technological innovation in the region and create pathways to commercialise advanced energy storage solutions. We want this region to be internationally recognised as an energy storage innovator as this will attract global industry interest and investment”.