Irish wind resource assessment company, BrightWind, has launched a new open data platform for Irish wind and solar resource data.
The BrightHub platform provides wind analysts and researchers, in Ireland and internationally, with open access to wind and solar resource datasets, enabling them to better understand Ireland’s wind and solar energy resources.
The datasets can be used to improve day-ahead forecasting of wind energy on the electrical system thus allowing more wind to be utilised instead of fossil fuels, helping Ireland to reach its renewable energy targets.
The launch marks the completion of a €162,000 grant awarded to the company in 2020 by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) to develop the platform.
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BrightWind has also announced the launch of version 2.0 of its open-source data analysis library. This library facilitates co-operation and research activities within the renewable energy industry by simplifying and standardising the access to quality wind and solar data.
Among the organisations currently contributing data to the BrightHub platform are; Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT), SEAI along with Wind Energy Direct, Greencoat Renewables and several other industry players.
Ben Brooks, Asset Manager at Greencoat Renewables, the owner of 20 wind farms in Ireland, said, “We are more than happy to share historical wind resource data from some of our operational sites.
"We see this as a win-win as the learnings from the resulting research will help accelerate the roll-out of renewable energy infrastructure. Our commitment to a sustainable future for the planet and our society extends beyond our investments and the clean energy they generate.”
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BrightWind founded in 2015 by Shane Martin and Stephen Holleran is headquartered at NovaUCD, the Centre for New Ventures and Entrepreneurs at University College Dublin.
The BrightWind team has extensive international experience in wind resource assessment, bringing thousands of megawatts of projects from site selection to financial close.
Stephen Holleran, co-founder and director of BrightWind, said, “BrightHub and the BrightWind open-source library, the only fully fledged open-source library for wind data processing in the world, will empower wind analysts and researchers to better understand the wind in Ireland.
“The Python library in particular gives wind analysts across the world the tools to advance their work practices and perform vital research that is currently not feasible. We are keen supporters of the open-source philosophy as we've seen huge benefits in the software industry which we aim to apply to the wind industry.”
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Raymond Byrne, a researcher at the Centre for Renewable Energy, DkIT, added: “High quality long-term wind resource data sets can be cost and time prohibitive for researchers to produce, or can come with confidentiality constraints when acquired from the wind industry.
"BrightHub, an open access platform of wind resource data, at all scales, will greatly benefit the research community in carrying out impactful research in a timely manner.”
Last October Everoze, a specialist renewables and energy consultancy headquartered in Bristol, acquired a 49.9% stake in BrightWind.
The BrightHub platform can be accessed via www.brightwindhub.com and documentation of the BrightWind library can be found on its GitHub repository at https://github.com/brightwind-dev/brightwind.
