The new iPower consortium comprising 32 partners has been officially opened on 22 August 2011 to begin the huge task of opening the door for incorporating more renewable energies into the upcoming power grids.
iPower consortium
The challenge for the future energy system is to design solutions that allow the energy system to efficiently receive power from alternative energy sources such as wind turbines that generate electricity only when wind blows. According to the Danish government’s long-term power program, the country will be independent from usage of fossil fuels by 2050, and 50% of electricity will be generated from wind power by 2025.
The iPower platform is led by Anders Troi, who serves as Risø DTU National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy’s Head of Programme. Jacob Østergaard, who serves as professor of the Centre for Electric Technology at DTU Electrical Engineering, will handle the platform’s research part, while the Danish Technological Institute’s Chief Technology Officer, Frank Elefsen is in charge of innovation.
Strategic Platform for Innovation and Research, an initiative of the Danish Council for Strategic Research and the Danish Council for Technology and Innovation, has granted financing worth DKK 60 million to the iPower platform over the coming five years. The partners of the consortium will double the funding to a total amount of DKK 120 million.
Anders Troi stated that the iPower consortium should develop solutions to designing and harnessing a clever and versatile power grid called smart grid. The extensive expertise of the consortium, which includes some of the major players in the energy market and small specialist firms as well as the research community, signifies that it is capable to design durable solutions and novel products that can be launched in the near feature, he added.