SDG 7 : Affordable and Clean Energy

An energy audit covering 85% of University of Limerick's (UL) delivered energy identified space and domestic hot-water heating as the University's primary source of CO₂ emissions. A separate Decarbonisation Report identified heating, solar PV, LED lighting, retrofit and energy-efficiency measures as key areas for meeting UL's 2030 emissions targets.

In 2025, Buildings and Estates replaced end-of-life gas-fired heating and hot-water equipment with heat-pump technology in several campus locations, including the Stables, Lonsdale, Plassey House, the Engineering Research Building and Health Sciences.

Energy-efficiency projects continued alongside this work. A hardware improvement project undertaken in the Analog Devices Building in 2025 is saving nearly 400,000 kWh per year. The new UL Student Centre, officially opened in October 2025, incorporates a bivalent heating system, LED lighting and solar PV.

By 2025, UL's energy efficiency was 40% better than its baseline performance, against a mandated target of 50% improvement by 2030. Total CO₂ emissions were 37.8% below baseline, with a further 13.2% reduction required by 2030 to meet UL's obligatory target. UL also purchases 100% renewable electricity.

Understanding household energy use and identifying practical ways to save energy are central to the proposed Community Energy Coaches programme in Limerick.

In 2025, students on University of Limerick's (UL) CWELL and Professional Diploma in Community Engagement programmes worked with PAUL Partnership to develop the role of Community Energy Coaches for Limerick. The initiative is designed to help people understand their energy use, identify ways to save energy and reduce household costs.

Working with the Northside Family Resource Centre, students carried out community consultations and a survey to explore what local communities already knew about energy saving and how they would like to engage with Community Energy Coaches. Their findings will inform the design and delivery of the programme.

Students also developed recruitment and promotional materials to support the recruitment of Community Energy Coaches and promote workshops and individual consultations. The materials were put into use at community energy workshops, moving the students' work beyond the classroom and into the communities for which it was developed.

The project was launched during Limerick Climate Action Week 2025 with a briefing and information event followed by an interactive workshop delivered by Hannah Jansen, SICAP Climate Action Worker. The workshop introduced the proposed Community Energy Coaches programme and provided another opportunity for community members to give feedback on its development.

Growing demand for batteries is increasing demand for the materials needed to manufacture them. At the same time, biomass residues and waste plastics represent potential sources of useful carbon materials that might otherwise be treated as waste.

In May 2025, University of Limerick (UL) researchers began work on converting these waste streams into porous carbon materials for next-generation magnesium-sulphur batteries. The research forms part of HighMag, a Horizon Europe project bringing together 13 universities, research institutes and industry partners across Europe to develop high-energy, low-cost and scalable magnesium-based batteries.

UL leads the project's work on developing porous carbons from biomass and waste plastics for use as sulphur-host materials (carbon materials that hold sulphur within battery electrodes). Magnesium and sulphur are comparatively abundant, but magnesium-sulphur batteries still face scientific challenges including limited lifetime and capacity fading. UL researchers are developing carbon materials with chemical and physical properties designed to address some of these performance limitations.

The project is also examining the sustainability of the materials and processes it develops through life-cycle and Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design approaches. This will allow potential environmental benefits and trade-offs to be assessed rather than assumed.

Sensors are increasingly used to monitor and manage agricultural systems, but powering them can mean relying on batteries that need regular replacement. Through the UL Student Sustainability Challenge 2024/25, PhD students Ibnu Taufan and Nouman Ghafoor from the School of Engineering explored whether energy already present in the farm environment could provide an alternative.

The students developed a prototype that captures ambient vibrations from agricultural equipment, such as water pumps and air compressors, and converts them into energy that can be used to power Internet of Things (IoT) sensors.

The project applies energy-harvesting technology to a practical agricultural challenge. By capturing mechanical energy generated during the normal operation of farm equipment, Ibnu and Nouman explored an alternative way of powering sensors without depending solely on disposable batteries.

Sodium is abundant and could provide an alternative to battery technologies that depend on more geographically constrained materials. University of Limerick (UL) and Swansea University are investigating sodium-metal batteries, although significant research challenges remain before these become a practical technology.

The project, supported through the Wales–Ireland Research Alliance Award, is investigating sodium-metal batteries using an anode-free cell architecture. Instead of introducing sodium metal into the battery during manufacturing, the approach is designed to form the sodium metal within the cell during operation. This could provide a more practical route to producing sodium-based energy-storage systems.

The Swansea–Limerick project received €73,155 through the Research Alliance Award, part of a wider €584,378 investment supporting eight collaborative projects between Wales and Ireland.

Tidal energy offers a renewable source of electricity, but conventional turbine designs can pose risks to marine ecosystems. Through the UL Student Sustainability Challenge 2024/25, Product Design and Technology student Emilia Ziolek explored whether learning from nature could offer a different approach to tidal-energy design.

Emilia redesigned the conventional tidal turbine using biomimicry, an approach that draws on structures and processes found in nature. Inspired by the movement of marine animals, she developed a flexible, bladeless concept designed to harness tidal currents without conventional rotating turbine blades.

The project brought product design, renewable energy and ecological considerations together. Rather than treating clean-energy generation and protection of marine ecosystems as separate challenges, Emilia explored how environmental considerations could be incorporated into the design of the technology itself.

Carbon materials play an important role in sulphur-based batteries, providing the conductive network that allows electrons to flow through electrically insulating sulphur. Most commercially available carbon materials are currently derived from the oil and petroleum industry, prompting researchers to explore alternative sources.

In 2025, PhD researcher Francesca Cucchiaro of University of Limerick's (UL) Department of Physics investigated whether almond shells could provide one such alternative. Her research focuses on converting biomass waste into activated carbon for use in sulphur-based battery electrodes. Almond shells were selected because they are available in southern Europe and have a lignin content of around 30%, a characteristic associated with the formation of highly porous carbon materials.

Chemical and heat treatments convert the shells into activated carbon containing pores of different sizes. The material is designed to hold sulphur, improve electrical conductivity and accommodate changes in volume during battery operation.

The research forms part of the EU-funded HighMag project, which is developing technologies for next-generation magnesium-based batteries. Sulphur-based batteries such as lithium-sulphur and magnesium-sulphur are not yet fully commercially available, but the research is exploring whether waste biomass could provide an alternative source of conductive carbon for these emerging battery technologies.