8. ENERGY TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT AND DEMONSTRATION

renewable energy. The project findings could contribute to Ireland’s renewable energy and climate change obligations, as well as broader sustainability and waste management issues (SEAI, 2017b).

The first National Policy Statement on the Bioeconomy was published in March 2018. It aimed to exploit the potential of the bioeconomy in promoting the more-efficient use of renewable resources while supporting economic development and employment in rural Ireland. The statement relates to the production of renewable biological resources and the conversion of these resources and waste streams into value-added products such as food, and bioenergy (Government of Ireland, 2018).

Hydrogen

Hydrogen is an increasingly promising element for future global energy supply. Research and pilot applications (including recent success in Austria) indicate that hydrogen is an important energy carrier and has considerable potential in energy supply, storage, mobility or industrial applications, for example.

A negligible share of government energy RD&D spending is targeting hydrogen, although Gas Networks Ireland has been undertaking research in this area. The Low Emission Vehicle Taskforce intends to consider the potential role of hydrogen in Ireland and the requirements for supporting infrastructure and other incentives. The government is aware that clean energy and mobility strategies need technical and innovative solutions that require exploring a wide range of options, including the use of hydrogen.

There is still uncertainty around the potential role that hydrogen may play in supporting the achievement of decarbonisation goals. It is important for Ireland to participate in research and collaborative work to support the evidence base in this area. Ireland’s significant offshore wind resources offer potential opportunities for hydrogen production. In addition, the existing gas pipeline infrastructure and natural gas storage facilities offer potential for hydrogen transportation and storage.

In principle, hydrogen may also be added in certain percentages to existing gas infrastructure, subject to technical and safety considerations. The efforts to decarbonise the Irish gas infrastructure by the admixture of biomethane could potentially be supported by the use of hydrogen.

Ireland’s energy RD&D prioritisation has sufficient flexibility to adapt to emerging sectors; hydrogen could be considered as one of those sectors.

Monitoring and evaluation

The SEAI has made good progress since the last IDR towards developing and adopting homogeneous metrics for pre-award RD&D project evaluation. The metrics consists of three principal criteria, each of which is broken down into sub-criteria:

criterion 1: excellence and innovation

criterion 2: relevance and impact

criterion 3: quality and efficiency of implementation.

ENERGY SYSTEM TRANSFORMATION

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