Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Sandia National Laboratories’ Vice President Rick Stulen have declared a three year $15 million agreement to construct a joint Center for Energy Transformation and Innovation at the University of Vermont.
Center for Energy Transformation and Innovation
Researchers of the center will partner on research in areas that include complex systems, energy efficiency, consumer response and acceptance and governance and energy policy.
The center, which is a partnership for three years, has members that include Efficiency Vermont, Sandia, the state of Vermont, University of Vermont, Vermont educational institutions, non-profit organizations and businesses. eEnergy Vermont is also a part of the syndicate that is a collaboration of 20 utility companies of Vermont.
According to the head of Sandia’s California Laboratory, its climate, infrastructure security and energy programs, Stulen, this partnership will operate as a reliable national storehouse that will help assist the dissemination and development of excellent smart grid practices to progress the country towards the energy infrastructure of the 21st century.
The Vermont-Sandia partnership started taking shape this year with funding from the Power Systems Fellowship Program of the Department of Energy that assisted the formation of an interdisciplinary community to help advance workforce development, education and also technological innovation in the electric energy segment of Vermont.. The partnership enabled promoting of student/faculty fellowships to modernize electric power, seminars and short courses at UVM on topics that include cyber security and smart grid technology and other events resulting in the formation of the center.
Sanders said that he was excited to declare the opening of an important national lab in Vermont, New England by setting up the Center for Energy Transformation and Innovation.
Apart from UVM, the other schools that are participating include Vermont Law School, Vermont Tech, Vermont State Colleges and Norwich University.
The Center has been financed by the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) of the Department of Energy, the state of Vermont and Sandia labs.