Ireland’s first floating solar energy plant is another step closer to fruition thanks to funding from the Marine Institute.

Co Mayo-based SolarMarine Energy Ltd shared in the €2.4 million Industry-Led Awards scheme for research projects in 2018, putting its grant into the design of a floating solar energy structure to generate ‘green hydrogen’.

As previously reported on Afloat.ie, the company secured permission from the Port of Cork some 18 months ago to install a 1.5MW plant in Cork Harbour at Ringaskiddy.

However, there is currently no official recognition of the company’s innovative concept within marine planning legislation.

This remains “an obstacle to obtaining a foreshore license for the development of floating solar projects”, as the final report into the project states.

Eamon Howlin, CEO of SolarMarine Energy, says: “The floating solar industry is only emerging in Europe having been established in Japan in 2014, and has a projected market value of over $1 billion by 2023.

“Thanks to our collaborative study in partnership with the Marine Institute and University College Cork, SolarMarine Energy Ltd are playing an important part in this developing industry.”

Dr Paul Leahy of the Science Foundation Ireland MAREI Centre at University College Cork (UCC) added that permission for a prototype at Ringaskiddy “would allow SolarMarine and UCC to capitalise on the design work undertaken under the Marine Institute-funded project, and bring the SolarMarine floating solar concept closer to market”.