Energy and Climate Change

01 Mai MEGATRENDS – The forces likely to shape work, employment and society in Ireland to 2040 and beyond

Irish Academy of Engineering (IAE)
2023
Megatrends, Download file Voltaire said the present is pregnant with the future and this is surely true of the intersecting forces, plans and events or “trends” that will shape Ireland’s society and economy over the medium term (2040 plus). The likely effects of some of these trends are already evident and others still have to reveal themselves more fully. In addition to the trends factors such as our current base of employment, existing national and sectoral plans as well as natural aspirations for a better society will all likely have a bearing on the shape of the future Ireland... . Executive Summary 1. Context
  • 1.1 Introduction
  • 1.2 Ireland’s Current Business Model
  • 1.3 Are We Over or Under-Educated?
  • 1.4 Irish Government Macro-Planning
  • 1.5 Global Megatrends
2. Exploring the MegaTrends
  • 2.1 Decarbonisation and Climate Change
  • 2.2 New Technology
  • 2.3 The Fourth Industrial Revolution - Industry 4.0
  • 2.4 The Circular Economy
  • 2.5 Remote Working
3. Conclusions and Recommendations.
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01 Déc Agenda for sustainable water supply

Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering (IVA)
2021
Access to clean water is a challenge for sustainable development in Sweden as well as globally. IVA's Sustainable Water Supply project addresses the following issues related to water supply of freshwater in Sweden - climate change, water supply in urban environments, water cycles and water management. Ten areas where challenges to the common water resource exist in Sweden today are identified, including the lack of time perspective in planning, and managing water issues. Several keys to more effective water management and water supply follow, including the need for collaboration and synchronisation between more stakeholders going forward. IVA concludes with ten policy proposals on what should be done in Sweden to meet current and future water challenges, including developing knowledge and models on how climate change affects water resources, giving river basins a central role in planning, and initiating Water Plan 2045, a national long-term strategy for water resource management. The proposals are presented in a ten-point agenda - the Agenda for Sustainable Water Supply. The report is available in Swedish.
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23 Avr Du partage de la connaissance et de la promotion d’une « science ouverte » / On sharing knowledge and fostering « open science »

A report of the Royal Academy of Belgium / Un rapport de l'Académie royale de Belgique
2020
Authors: Document stemming from the work undertaken by the “Dissemination of Science” Group of the Royal Academy of Belgium, headed by Erol Gelenbe and comprising Guy Brasseur, Luc Chefneux, Véronique Dehant, Véronique Halloin, Jean-Paul Haton, Michel Judkiewicz, Bernard Rentier and Romain Weikmans. Main themes: dissemination of knowledge in the context of reducing the climate footprint.
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07 Avr Significant Gas Fired Generation Required During Transition To Zero Carbon

Irish Academy of Engineering (IAE)
2021
National Energy and Climate Plan, Download file The Irish Government has adopted a challenging target of having 70% of the country’s electricity produced from renewable sources (mainly wind and solar) by 2030. In its newly published report, ‘The Challenge of High Levels of Renewable Electricity in Ireland’s Electricity System’ The Irish Academy of Engineering (IAE), seeks to identify the risks in the transition to renewable electricity and recommend prudent actions by policy makers. There is broad agreement that long term decarbonisation of the planet’s energy systems requires a major shift to electricity as an energy vector. Ireland is planning to have nine hundred thousand electric vehicles on the road by 2030 as well as six hundred thousand heat pumps. Don Moore says “In this context, a failure of the power system would have a catastrophic effect on normal economic life. In order to maintain necessary reliability standards while replacing coal, oil and peat generation, Ireland will require significant gas fired generation for the next two decades.” Gas consumption will reduce as generating units will operate with lower load factors, but peak gas demand for power generation will be significantly more than today. Don Moore states that “Power system reliability is therefore critically dependent on secure primary energy supplies (natural gas) to the Island of Ireland”. By 2030, the island of Ireland will be almost totally dependent on Great Britain (GB) for its gas supply. GB in turn will import up to 75% of its gas due to declining North Sea production. In the Academy’s view, developing a liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal in Ireland is highly advisable to ensure secure, diverse and cost-effective gas supplies. There are several major LNG exporting counties, such as Qatar, Algeria, Nigeria, and Russia which have enormous gas reserves, and Don Moore says “ Ireland is one of the very few maritime countries in Europe which does not have an LNG import facility”. The global LNG market is now extremely competitive with over 20 exporting countries and more than 40 importing countries. Alternatives to gas fired generation to support 70% renewable electricity have been proposed, these include: • Pumped Hydro Storage • Compressed Air Storage • Battery Storage • Carbon Capture and Storage • Increased Interconnection • Hydrogen Fuel Options • Biofuels • Marine Energy (Wave/Tidal) • Nuclear Power The Academy’s considered conclusion is that none of these options can be implemented on a scale that would significantly reduce Ireland’s gas fired generation by 2030.
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01 Nov Beyond Covid-19: laying the foundations for a net zero recovery

Royal Academy of Engineering (UK) (RAEng)
2020
Authors: National Engineering Policy Centre (see report for working group members and contributors) In this briefing the National Engineering Policy Centre (NEPC) calls for an economic recovery that pivots the UK towards a net-zero future, rather than one that locks us into a high-carbon future. It offers five foundations, accompanied by actions that the government, engineering community and others could take, which will secure a low-carbon and resilient recovery.
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01 Oct The Future of Electricity Transmission in Ireland

Irish Academy of Engineering (IAE)
2020
The Irish Government has published the National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP 2021–2030) which sets out targets for reducing Ireland’s Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions over the next decade. The plan aims to increase the penetration of renewable electricity generation to 70% by 2030 by incentivising the construction of up to 9.2GW of new renewable energy projects. This amounts to approximately 80% of all current generation capacity in the country. This paper is the first of a series to be produced by the Irish Academy of Engineering examining various hurdles that must be overcome if such a transition is to be successfully accomplished over the next decade. These hurdles include among others: • Large scale investment in new transmission capacity in order to efficiently connect the new generation to the existing transmission system (National Grid). • Measures to ensure short-term system stability given the likely connection of large amounts of non-synchronous generation. • Measures to manage the intermittency inherent in new renewable technologies. • Electrical interconnection to other jurisdictions and the market issues associated with the potential large-scale import and export of electricity. In this paper the IAE focuses on the first item on the above list and seeks to set out the issues – initially from a European perspective. The Academy has raised ten questions in the final summary which it believes require urgent consideration if the NECP targets are to be achieved. Principal among these is the social acceptability of transmission investment among the community at large. Based on European experience, the Academy suggests that the Government must take direct ownership of this issue.  
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01 Juin Lessons from the COVID 19 Experience – Building a Green Future Together

Irish Academy of Engineering (IAE)
2020
This report endeavours to make sense of our shared experience over the last few months of pandemic and lockdown. Positive lessons are drawn that it is hoped will help in overcoming the infinitely greater challenge of climate change and in the process ensure a sustainable future for mankind.  
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01 Mai Net zero: a systems perspective on the climate challenge

Royal Academy of Engineering (UK) (RAEng)
2020
Authors: National Engineering Policy Centre (see report for working group members) This paper introduces the National Engineering Policy Centre’s (NEPC) project on decarbonisation, which will explore systems implications of the transition to net zero and offer advice to government and other stakeholders to support urgent and difficult decisions. The project will be underpinned by engineering realities that inform technological and commercial feasibility, cost, integrity, safety, security and resilience, and timescales for deployment.
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01 Mar Ideas for the Programme for Government

Irish Academy of Engineering (IAE)
2020
Programme for Government – Key Points During the next ten years the country faces a range of major challenges that need to be addressed by integrated Government programmes and related allocation of resources. This report highlights a number of these issues and suggests practical measures to address these challenges including : CLIMATE CHANGE, HOUSING AND TRANSPORTATION, BALANCED REGIONAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT and ENTERPRISE, INNOVATION, EDUCATION.  
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01 Mar Futurist Lecture Series

Real Academia de Ingenieria (Spain) (RAI)
2020
As a result of the cooperation between the Royal Academy of Engineering and Fundación La Caixa (La Caixa Foundation), a series of lectures are being held under the title Futurists: Engineering and its new challenges, in Madrid, and will continue in the cities of Seville and Zaragoza, and are given by academicians of the RAI. Due to the global health situation, only two of the planned lectures could be held in 2020. The first of these lectures, Will we run out of water?, was given by Mr Elías Fereres, academician of the RAI, on 5th March 2020, who recalled that life on the Planet is not possible without water, and in the case of human beings, in addition to hydrating one’s body, water is essential for the production of food. http://www.raing.es/es/actividades/nos-quedaremos-sin-agua-por-el-fereres The second of these conferences, Artificial Intelligence: Fiction and reality, was given by Nuria Oliver on 24th September 2020. http://www.raing.es/es/actividades/inteligencia-artificial-ficci-n-y-realidad-por-nuria-oliver    
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