Powering Progress

On this week's Powering Progress, Brian chats with Cliona O'Sullivan, Head of Development Onshore for RWE Renewables Ireland. 

Clíona discusses how important community engagement is for wind energy development in Ireland. She tells us how developers consult and engage with people about wind farm development, the community benefits and much more. 

In this episode of Powering Progress, Brian chats offshore wind energy with Brian Hegarty of the ESB. 

Brian tells us where Ireland plans to build the first of its offshore wind farms and when we can expect the first electricity to be generated by these new wind farms. He tells us how ordinary people can benefit from offshore wind energy and much more.

This week on Powering Progress, Brian chats with Seán Finan, CEO of the Irish Bioenerygy Association.

The Irish Bioenergy Association is the representative body of those with an interest in the bioenergy industry and includes farmers, foresters, fuel suppliers, energy development companies, equipment manufacturers/suppliers, engineers, financiers/legal advisers, local authorities to name but a few.

Seán tells Brian what exactly is bioenergy is, where it is used in our day to day lives, the difference between bioenergy and other renewable energy sources and much more.

In this week's Powering Progress, we speak with JP O’Brien, Head of Solar Project Delivery for Statkraft Ireland. JP started building large commercial scale solar farms in the UK in 2011 and is currently building some of Ireland's largest solar farms across the country. 

JP tells us all we need to know about solar farms and what needs to be considered from an environmental perspective when building one. 

In this installment of Powering Progress, Brian is joined by  Yvonne Murphy CEO of the Irish District Energy Association. They chat about all things district energy. They cover topics such as what is district energy and how it works. How can district energy help with decarbonsiation and much more. 

In this episode of 'Powering Progress,' Brian sits down with Ecologist Carmel Brennan. They dive into the topic of biodiversity, discussing its importance and much more.

In this episode of Powering Progress Brian is joined by Dave Linehan of Wind Energy Ireland. 

Dave discusses Wind Energy Ireland's electricity grid and renewable energy. He tells Brian the benefits of having a strong grid. He explains why it is important that we develop the electricity grid in Carlow and Kilkenny and much more. 

 In this installment of Powering Progress, Edward Hayden speaks with Bobby Smith, who is the Head of Energy Storage Ireland, and Joseph Devlin, who's a senior analyst at Energia Group. 

Bobby tells us that Energy Storage Ireland has over 50 member companies from across the energy storage industry and works to promote the benefits of energy storage to decarbonising Ireland’s energy system. He tells Edward what exactly energy storage is and why it is important. He tells us about battery storage and the advantages energy storage can bring. 

Meanwhile, Joseph chats about green hydrogen. He tells us where it comes from and why it's important.  

 In this installment of Powering Progress, Brian chats with James Delahunt.

James is a corporate finance partner specialising in M&A and financing transactions. James also co-leads the deal advisory work of KPMG Sustainable Futures, Ireland's largest specialist ESG and renewable energy advisory practice. He has many years of experience in both international and domestic transactions across a range of sectors, including having advised on over €3 billion worth of renewable energy transactions. 

James chats about the benefits of working in a renewable energy job, the renewable energy projects he has come across that have and will bring tangible benefits to the Midlands, Carlow, Kilkenny, and much more.  

In this installment of Powering Progress, Dr. Paul Deane, Senior Lecturer in Clean Energy Futures at UCC, joins the show. He is one of the top 5 most cited scientists globally in his field of energy modeling. He has extensive experience in research on electricity and energy.

He chats about where we get most of our electricity from, what happens when we have more renewables like wind energy in the electricity system, and much more.