Skip navigation 
Previous Page
13
INNOVATION
December 2012/January 2013 www.esb.ie/em
ESB International Sales Conference 2012 - Planning for Success and Growth
THE ESB International Sales Conference 2012 took place on Wednesday and Thursday October 3rd and 4th. The main objective of the meeting was to promote understanding and debate within the extended management team about the business development strategy, action plans and its future direction.
ESB International Business Development Manager Sean Atkinson said, “Bringing the business development team and management together for an intensive working session was extremely productive in highlighting both the significant opportunities available for ESBI in our key markets and the challenges to be faced delivering large-scale international business growth”.
1,000 electric vehicle charge points installed
ESB HAS passed another important milestone in the delivery of a nationwide electric vehicle charging infrastructure with the installation of more than 1,000 domestic, commercial and public electric vehicle (EV) charge points in Ireland. This means that all counties and 90% of major cities and towns have now access to EV charging infrastructure. ESB along with its key partners will continue to roll out the EV charging network with the installation of further charge points throughout the country to include all towns with populations greater than 1,500. This development is in line with the rollout and availability of new electric vehicles to complement those already on the market.
ESB ecars Manager Dermot McArdle said, “ESB is pleased to have 1,000 operational charge-points installed throughout the country and Ireland is on track to have one of the most advanced electric vehicle’s infrastructure in Europe. The availability of charge-points are key to the uptake of electric vehicles, making them practical alternatives for inter-urban as well as daily commutes.”
For full details and locations of all the charge points installed, and to find the one nearest you, please see our charge point map by following the link on www.esb.ie/ChargePointMap
1,000 electric vehicle charge points installed across Ireland Our charge-point map is regularly updated with the location of newly-installed charge-points. It now also includes our Green Hotels charge-points, which were installed as part of the Green Hotel Drive, an initiative involving ESB ecars and Fáilte Ireland.
Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport Leo Varadkar experiences ecar driving in Dublin
PICTURED IS Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport Leo Varadkar TD with ESB ecars’ 100% electric Nissan LEAF in Dublin city centre. The minister recently trialled the ecar over a weekend to experience electric driving in Dublin. There are now more than 100 publicly-accessible charge-points installed by ESB around Dublin city and county to re-charge electric vehicles. Nationwide there are 1,000 charge points installed in public locations, workplaces and homes covering every county in Ireland. Electricity costs, based on night time tariff, for a full charge is approx €2.30 giving approx 160km driving range. This works out at about 1/10th of the running cost of an average petrol car. In addition, as more and more of Ireland’s electricity is generated from renewable energy, electric vehicles will make increasingly significant contributions to meeting Ireland’s international commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. There are a wide range of electric vehicles on the market and most major manufacturers will have electric vehicles as part of their fleet in the next two to three years
Powering the Future – the new Innovation Group in ESB
SINCE ITS foundation, ESB has a proven record of technological leadership supported by a highly skilled and expert workforce. New technologies, looking at doing things in an innovative and smart way are key to the future success and growth of the company. In recognition of this, a separate, dedicated business line, called ‘Innovation’ has been established to focus on these activities.
Innovation in ESB is headed by John McSweeney and includes ESB International, ocean energy, ecars, ESB Novusmodus, as well as ESB Telecoms. In his role, John will be responsible for overseeing the development of innovation across the clean technology sector including:, renewable energy, emerging low-carbon technologies and development of ecar infrastructure projects across Ireland.
ESB International is also part of the Innovation Group and is currently active across a number of leading innovative energy projects in Ireland and overseas. It is also ideally positioned to offer consultancy services in new emerging technologies that are being developed within the company to the international market.
The development of a substantial renewable energy portfolio by ESB is designed to support Ireland’s overall target of generating 40% of electricity from renewables by 2020.
While ESB’s primary development focus is currently on wind generation, the company is also proactively developing ocean energy through the West-Wave project. This is an initial project to prove the viability of converting wave energy to electricity in Ireland. The wave resource on the west coast and the tidal resources on the north and east coasts comprise a massive untapped energy source.
Electric vehicles, powered by renewable sources such as wind or ocean, will facilitate the decarbonisation of the transport sector. ESB ecars is on track towards having one of the most advanced electric vehicle infrastructures anywhere in Europe and has passed the 1,000 installed charge-points milestone. ESB ecars is also involved in research and demonstration projects, as well as working with standards bodies worldwide.
Recognising the new levels of innovation needed to meet the future changes in the way power is generated, delivered and consumed, ESB set up a €200m fund, called ESB Novusmodus to invest in the renewable energy and energy efficiency sectors. With a commitment of €200m, the fund is one of the largest clean tech funds in Europe. The future for renewable energy at ESB is bright and it will form an increasing proportion of the generation mix over the coming years.
ESB Telecoms, another part of Innovation, offers a portfolio of bandwidth services and tower sites to mobile phone operators, Internet Service Providers and data centre operators. A nationwide fibre optic network, telecommunications sites and structures will be further strengthened by new infrastructure developments in the coming months which will extend the service overseas offering customers an unrivalled footprint network.
“ESB is designed to support Ireland’s overall target of generating 40% of electricity from renewables by 2020
The Innovation Group offers the company exciting opportunities both at home and overseas and helps to support ESB’s profile as a strong, leading Irish energy company. New energy technologies offer new ways to meet our sustainability targets and have the potential to play a key role in Ireland’s economic recovery and provide much needed high quality employment.
The North Atlantic Green Zone
ESB Netowrks Ltd
page 23
Dublin City Council goes Electric with car-pooling scheme
THE LORD Mayor of Dublin, Naoise Ó Muirí, launched the Dublin City Council electric car pooling scheme at the Mansion House. The scheme is supported by ESB ecars and Renault Ireland and gives employees in the Council’s head office access to three Renault electric vehicles (EVs) that they can use when on council business. Council staff can recharge the EVs on site using charge points supplied and installed by ESB ecars and manufactured by Irish company M2C. The DCC ecar drivers will also be able to avail of the public EV charging network, which includes almost 150 charge points in Dublin alone.
Speaking about the initiative the Lord Mayor of Dublin said, “The cost of powering an electric vehicle is approximately one tenth of the cost of an equivalent petrol car with carbon emissions being reduced by over 50%. By introducing this scheme, Dublin City Council is clearly making headway in reducing its carbon footprint”.
ESB ecars Manager Dermot McArdle said, “This is a great move forward in the development of sustainable commercial fleets and an endorsement of Ireland’s roll out of electric vehicles.”
For more on this initiative and the latest from ESB ecars log on to www.esb.ie/ecars
