CASE has a central role in helping Northern Ireland meet its climate change objectives on the road to net zero while underpinning growth and regional prosperity in a sustainable, low-carbon economy.
Driving decarbonisation
Reducing net CO2 emissions to zero is the goal of most countries including Northern Ireland. In CASE we continue to support work to accelerate the move of Northern Ireland to 100% sustainable, renewable energy.
Our research enables industry to not only decarbonise their energy supplies but also to reduce and prevent carbon emissions by changing processes and developing practical means to capture and sequester CO2 from flue gases and the atmosphere.
Delivering economic green energy and ensuring security of supply
CASE is supporting the development of local supply of electricity, gas and heat requirements through utilisation of local resources such as wind, wave, tidal, solar and biogenic feedstocks.
We also support research into different forms of energy storage as well as efficient and effective energy supply systems.
Our work is helping to ensure that Northern Ireland has resilience from external geopolitical events that cause fossil fuel price shocks while minimising the cost of energy production and transmission in the region.
Enabling industry to develop new products and services while improving competitiveness and productivity
All our research projects are industry led and delivered in partnership with companies. We actively pursue development and commercialisation of research outcomes with industry partners to maximise the benefit to the regional economy.
CASE help Northern Irish companies to create novel, net-zero or negative carbon products and services as well as enabling them to decarbonise existing products to allow them to compete in markets which require low-carbon goods and services.
We actively support work to reduce or reuse waste, improve energy efficiency and to connect supply chains which collectively increases the productivity and competitiveness of Northern Ireland businesses.
Research
We’ve listened to organisations operating in the sector and focused our research agenda in three strategic areas.
Our work helps to position Northern Ireland at the forefront of the global sustainable energy market; by integrating leading research into the local industrial base, for the benefit of the business community and the wider economy.
Bio-Energy
With a number of commercial scale energy from biomass plants operational in Northern Ireland at present, CASE Research will focus on optimising the efficiency of the plant in terms of operational capacity and optimising the resource feedstock.
Biogas is of increasing importance and value as a biofuel, particularly for transport.
Marine Renewable Energy
With wind energy regularly contributing over 12% of Northern Ireland’s energy portfolio, wind energy is an established technology. Nevertheless, single turbines with stranded grid connections remain an issue.
Northern Ireland is one of the best tidal energy resources in Europe and research in this area is required to reduce the levelised cost of energy to compete with offshore wind.
Energy Systems
The 2013 Matrix (Sustainable Energy Science Advisory Panel) Report identified Northern Ireland as an ideal test bed for intelligent energy systems.
A 40% renewable energy target by 2020 and an electricity grid requiring significant investment to deliver on these renewable targets provides plenty of opportunity for innovation through R&D.
Our Support Mechanisms
Established in September 2013, we can access £5m of research grant to fund collaborative R&D projects in partnership with academics at Queen’s University Belfast, University of Ulster and the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute. We can also signpost companies to other grant support through Invest NI, UK Government, the EU and Internationally.
The results of CASE R&D also provide a solid base for influencing local government policy in the sustainable energy sector and we proactively promote Northern Ireland’s sustainable energy innovation capability within government circles.
