The European Commission has allocated €2.17 million towards sustainable energy projects in Ireland. The funding will be provided to Irish researchers in ocean, wind, geothermal and sustainable transport projects.

This will complement the Government's investment of €149 million to Energy Research under the National Development Plan.

Dáil Energy Minister Eamon Ryan said: "We know why Ireland needs to develop alternative forms of energy. We need to reduce dependence on foreign energy sources; we need to deal with the ever-rising cost of oil and we need to tackle climate change. "Domestically-produced renewable sources will be pivotal to our solutions."

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Some successful projects involving Irish partners include: Cores, an ocean energy project, being coordinated by University College Cork. It focuses on new components and concepts for ocean energy converters. The project concentrates on the development of new concepts and components for power-take-off, control, moorings, risers, data acquisition and instrumentation based on floating OWC systems.

Another project is Safewind, involving EirGrid, it focuses on the external conditions, resource assessment and forecasting tools for wind energy. The aim of this proposal is to substantially improve wind power predictability in challenging or extreme situations and at different temporal and spatial scales. The project concentrates on using new measuring devices for a more detailed knowledge of the wind speed and energy available at local level.

monitoring traffic flows and analysis of mobility demand and supply and planning initiatives that public administrations and citizens can implement to tackle the problems, thereby achieving the desired behavioural shift.

(GK/JM)