Useful Links

Centre for Renewables and Energy (CREDIT)

The Centre for Renewables and Energy at Dundalk Institute of Technology was founded in 2002 with the primary aim of assisting with Ireland’s transition to a renewable energy-based economy.

CREDIT’s programme of research focuses on two key thematic areas: land-based energy systems and offshore energy systems.

CREDIT aims to enhance the efficiency, reliability, and scalability of systems and technologies, contributing to Ireland's transition towards a clean energy future. A focus is also placed on the circular economy by promoting the development of energy systems that minimise waste, optimise resource use, and contribute to a sustainable society. CREDIT’s research programme also addresses critical environmental concerns, ensuring that these energy solutions are ecologically responsible and aligned with Irish & EU policy on sustainability and climate action.

Research Centre Members

Fergal O’Rourke - Centre Director

Peter Ryan

Wayne Doherty

Paul MacArtain

Thomas Kelly

Eoin Clancy

Phil Bradley

Additionally, CREDIT has a diverse group of PhD students, postdoctoral researchers, and research assistants.

Why Renewable Energy

Ireland and the EU face the requirement to transition to renewable energy to mitigate against energy vulnerabilities, i.e. environmental aspects, security of energy supply and cost and competitiveness of energy. Currently, there is an over-reliance on fossil fuel imports to meet energy demand. Renewable energy reduces the reliance on the combustion of fossil fuels, lowers greenhouse gas emissions and assists with combating the climate crisis. Ireland has set goals, based on EU policy, to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by no later than 2050.

Research Facilities and Equipment

CREDIT has recently acquired a diverse range of equipment, including a HASS/HALT chamber for environmental testing, LiDAR for wind resource assessment and nacelle-mounted LiDAR for turbine performance evaluation and correction.

Facilities:
- Vestas V52 850kW wind turbine
- 34m met mast
- 400W and 700W test wind turbines
- 2.5kW test turbine
- Gill Instruments and NRG Anemometers
- ZBB Energy 50kWh flow battery
- Efoy Comfort 210 methanol fuel cell
- 18 m x 0.35m x 1 m Wave tank with range of wave probes and transducers
- Anaerobic digester
- GCMS – Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry equipment

Additionally, CREDIT have computational resources, hardware and software, like Ansys and Matlab software to support modelling and data analysis, as well as a range of industry-standard software platforms. This comprehensive set of tools enables the group to tackle complex challenges in the research domain of energy and sustainability.

Research Centre Projects

A selection of some CREDIT projects include:

Multi-criteria site characterisation and site selection for floating offshore wind farms off the Irish coast.
Design and optimisation of floating offshore wind turbine arrays for Irish coastal conditions.
Bio-SNG Production via Dual Fluidised Bed Gasification: A Modelling Approach.
The design and development of a novel wave powered sensor buoy.
Power-to-Gas Variable Renewable Electricity Energy Storage in Ireland.
Design and development a multi-functional floating offshore measurement platform that allows for an integrated sensor suite of inputs.

Outputs and Outreach

PhD student graduations.
Undergraduate student placements.
International peer-reviewed publications in the form of journal articles, conference papers and book chapters.
Open access data repositories.
Public lectures/talks on specialist areas during Engineers Week.
School (Primary and Secondary) talks on Energy.
CREDIT researchers are all involved in teaching within the School of Engineering and the School of Health and Science.
Through the Technology Gateway, industry link, CREDIT members offer guidance and expertise on energy related industry matters.

Commercialisation of Research and Industrial Engagement

The Centre for Renewables and Energy has a commercial component in the form of an Enterprise Ireland Funded Technology Gateway. The CREDIT Technology Gateway is an interdisciplinary industry-linked research centre, within CREDIT, which offers world class technical expertise for SMEs and larger organisations in the core disciplines of Offshore Wind & Distributed Energy, Zero Carbon and Energy Integration. CREDIT Technology Gateway, since its development in 2020, is fast becoming a vital part of Ireland’s energy and renewables research and innovation landscape. The Technology Gateway actively supports business and industry to become more competitively facilitated through problem solving, targeted R&D, innovation and enabling faster adoption of emerging technologies and processes to create new markets in the low and zero carbon sector.

More details on the CREDIT Technology Gateway can be found here.