Investigation into the feasibility of a West of Ireland Pumped Storage System

Ireland’s remote position on the tip of Europe ensures that the country is vulnerable to uncertainty of supply. The reliance on conventional sources of electricity has ensured that escalated prices and high carbon emissions have been witnessed whilst opportunities that inherent resources provide, such as the wind, have not been capitalised upon. The intermittent nature of the wind make it difficult to maximise its potential as in many cases the highest wind speeds are highest when demand is low. The West of Ireland’s combination of wind speeds and unique topography makes it suitable for and innovative wind powered pumped storage system, which can essentially regulate the wind generated electricity and integrate further penetration of renewable energy. In addition, its location along the Atlantic Ocean provides further scope for innovation as seawater can be integrated into the system design. The construction of such an unprecedented project in combination with increased interconnectors has the potential to make Ireland a rechargeable battery for Europe. However, such ambitious plans are at the very early stages and are in direct contrast to current events in the Irish energy market. This study focuses on the feasibility of West of Ireland pumped storage systems. Entailed within this is an extensive desk study, a detailed site selection process and a feasibility study of grid connection. To increase opportunities to identify the best possible site, the feasibility study was focused on the Galway and Mayo areas solely.

Design, development and testing of a CAD integrated design for environment software tool.

The research described in this thesis was developed as part o f the Information Management for Green Design (IMA GREE) Project. The 1MAGREE Project was founded by Enterprise Ireland under a Strategic Research Grant Scheme as a partnership project between Galway Mayo Institute o f Technology and C1MRU University College Galway. The project aimed to develop a CAD integrated software tool to support environmental information management for design, particularly for the electronics-manufacturing sector in Ireland.

Computer integrated testing for the transport refrigeration systems industry.

This is a study of a state of the art implementation of a new computer integrated testing (CIT) facility within a company that designs and manufactures transport refrigeration systems. The aim was to use state of the art hardware, software and planning procedures in the design and implementation of three CIT systems. Typical CIT system components include data acquisition (DAQ) equipment, application and analysis software, communication devices, computer-based instrumentation and computer technology. It is shown that the introduction of computer technology into the area of testing can have a major effect on such issues as efficiency, flexibility, data accuracy, test quality, data integrity and much more. Findings reaffirm how the overall area of computer integration continues to benefit any organisation, but with more recent advances in computer technology, communication methods and software capabilities, less expensive more sophisticated test solutions are now possible. This allows more organisations to benefit from the many advantages associated with CIT. Examples of computer integration test set-ups and the benefits associated with computer integration have been discussed.

Development of an integrated approach to reliability management and operation

The research described in this thesis has been developed as a part of the Reliability and Field Data Management for Multi-component Products (REFIDAM) Project. This project was founded under the Applied Research Grants Scheme administered by Enterprise Ireland. The project was a partnership between Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology and Thermo King Europe. The project aimed to develop a system in order to manage the information required for reliability assessment and improvement of multi-component products, by establishing information flows within the company and information exchange with fleet users.