National energy award for Limerick man

THE Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) has given a top national energy award to Limerick’s Seamus Hoyne.

The authority has awarded Mr Hoyne, who is the Limerick Institute of Technoloy’s development and public engagement manager, the title of outstanding contribution to sustainable energy at the 2020 awards.

He was recognised for his leadership in research and development in the energy sector since the 1990s, and has participated in more than 25 EU funded research projects.

From 1998 to 2012 Mr Hoyne was the managing director of the Tipperary Energy Agency (TEA) and grew the organisation to one of the leading social enterprises of its kind in Ireland and Europe. He is now the chair of TEA.

In 2017 he was appointed development and public engagement manager within LIT and now leads its development unit.  Among the 25 EU funded R&D Projects Seamus was involved in was the five-year EU CONCERTO Project SERVE, which saw an investment of over €10million in sustainable energy in North Tipperary.

Mr Hoynes is also the principal investigator for the Centre for Energy Efficiency and Deep Decarbonisation which is focused on supporting communities, enterprises, and industry to develop and engage in sustainable practices and processes. He has recently secured €7.5m to establish a digital academy for sustainable built environment to scale up delivery of education on energy efficiency, renewable energy and sustainable construction.

“I am incredibly honoured to win this award from SEAI,” said Mr Hoyne, “I’m accepting it on behalf of the great teams of people I have worked with on the energy transition in Tipperary, Ireland and across Europe. My current work within LIT and the development unit enables me to work across research and development, plus education and training.  So not only do we work to bring new solutions and technologies to the market but also to ensure that people along the energy value chain gain new knowledge and skills.  It’s been exciting to see the changes over the last number of years, where energy policy is being aligned with investment and funding into the sustainable energy sector.  We now need to ensure that all citizens play their part in realising the energy transition and build a sustainable future for us all”

LIT president Dr Vincent Cunnane said: “Seamus’s leadership and knowledge in the area of sustainable energy is invaluable not only to ongoing research and development work at LIT, but to transforming the way we approach construction and building in Ireland into the future. We in LIT are immensely proud of Seamus and all he continues to achieve in the area of sustainable energy.”