Renewable energy professionals from across the island of Ireland gathered this week at an event aiming to promote economic growth in the sector.
The ‘Tap into the Grid’ event, organised by Belfast Met through the business support programme ‘Generate’, gave companies a chance to gain an insight into the opportunities that exist for many sectors, including ICT, Site and Consumer Levels, and to hear from the industry’s key decision makers.
Generate participant Mark McGuinness, from Olenick Global, said: “The Tap into the Grid event provided us with aninsight into how the renewable energy sector is expanding on the island of Ireland and how integration with traditional energy sources provides opportunities in various business sectors over the coming years.
“We are excited as a company to be involved in the Generate programme and look forward to partnering with and providing IT solutions to all energy providers as the market for renewables develops.”
Part-funded by Lisburn City Council, Belfast City Council, Castlereagh Borough Council, Invest Northern Ireland and the European Regional Development Fund under the Sustainable Competitiveness Programme for Northern Ireland, the Generate programme provides support and training for employees in small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) in its council areas which are keen to discover progressive opportunities for their company and their employees in emerging markets for wind, marine, bio-energy, smart-grid and energy storage.
Paul McCormack, Innovation Manager with Belfast Met, expressed his thanks to the event speakers: “Eoin Kennedy from EirGrid Group provided a System Services Overview and his colleague Doireann Barry’s presentation offered delegates an insight into Smart Grid Opportunities. I would like to thank them both for taking the time to present and explain to the companies the real opportunities that the Smart Grid holds. I would also like to thank representatives from Invest NI; Sam Knox and Linda Jamison who discussed Smart Grid Values Chains and Collaborative networking.”