UCD students claim €12,000 top prize at EirGrid’s CleanerGrid Competition

31 March 2025

^{Stephen Murphy, Ruairí Collins and Eoin Duffy Credit: EirGrid}

Three students from UCD have been announced as winners of the second annual CleanerGrid Competition, taking home €6,000 for their team and €6,000 for the university.

Run by EirGrid – which operates and develops Ireland’s electricity grid – the competition encourages third-level students to solve critical energy challenges, with a focus on sustainability, efficiency and clean energy technologies.

This year’s theme asked students to present a vision of what the growing energy sector will need to look like in 2050 to have sustainably achieved net-zero emissions.

Mechanical Engineering students Ruairí Collins, Eoin Duffy and Stephen Murphy, known as Todhchaí Glas, claimed the top prize for their proposal showing how pumped hydro energy storage could help with managing wind and solar energy variability.

Students taking part were asked to show how the electricity grid will need to change to allow for more renewable sources and less conventional generation.

This included any government policies that will need to be in place, how the economy will be affected, how the grid will need to adapt and how technology can help to achieve this goal.

The competition was judged by Met Éireann meteorologist Joanna Donnelly; Vish Gain, a technology and business journalist with the Business Post; Professor John Barry, Professor of Green Political Economy at Queen’s University Belfast; and Louise O’Flanagan, EirGrid’s Head of Engineering and Asset Management.

Students from the University of Galway claimed the runner-up prize, while third place went to a team from Dublin City University.

“Today’s competition is further evidence of the valuable contributions third-level students can offer in tackling societal challenges such as decarbonisation, energy affordability and climate action. They are at the forefront of the latest cutting-edge research through our universities, and we can learn so much from them,” said Liam Ryan, EirGrid’s Chief Innovation Officer.

“As we work towards delivering the government targets for a decarbonised, sustainable and strong economy, we recognise the importance of bringing students and young people with us on the journey as we transition to a clean, renewable energy grid.”

By: Rebecca Hastings, Digital Journalist, UCD University Relations

To contact the UCD News & Content Team, email: newsdesk@ucd.ie