Dr Dan Arvizu, Director of NREL (National renewable  Energy Laboratory) has recently visited the Rhone-Alpes region and in particular Grenoble.

Grenoble-Isère and Golden, Colorado come together with renewed (and renewable!) energy

Could it be that living in mountain environments-with their sometimes-harsh weather conditions-forces people to use energy wisely and to think more carefully about energy in general?

If you take the example of Grenoble-Isère's Tenerrdis cluster for new energy technologies, located at the foot of the Alps, and the Colorado-based National Renewable Energy Laboratory in the heart of the Rockies, the answer is a resounding yes!

The two organizations have signed a partnership-their first-to work together on technologies for solar energy, batteries, and smart grids. However, as NREL Director Dan Arvizu pointed out, the benefits of the partnership could have an impact that reaches far beyond technological innovation.

From NREL's point of view, how do partnerships accelerate innovation? 

International partnerships enable NREL to collaborate with leading centers of excellence around the world in advancing progress toward common technology research goals.  Such cooperation accelerates the pace and scope of innovation by harnessing collective expertise, facilities, and resources across institutions to address key technical challenges. This cooperation can include sharing of research methods, test data and analytic tools, and cooperative fundamental research projects.     

Beyond the joint development of new technologies, how do you feel your partnership with Tenerrdis will benefit businesses and the economy?

The NREL partnership with Tenerrdis holds great promise to contribute to our mutual understanding of the performance of innovative PV, battery, and smart grid technologies and systems.  This can lead to improvements in performance and cost-effectiveness of these clean energy technologies and increased opportunities for their successful commercialization and deployment.  This can benefit U.S. and French companies, while also reducing energy costs for consumers in both our countries. 

Do you feel that competition is a thing of the past? Is "coopetition" the new trend today?

There are many reasons why we should focus our collective energies on cooperative programs.  We need to harness our common expertise and resources to tackle global challenges such as climate change and energy security.  Only through robust international cooperation can we achieve the transformational changes needed in our energy systems to respond to these urgent global issues.  In addition, the market for clean energy technologies is global and the major international players are multinational corporations. Both France and the U.S. benefit if we can accelerate innovations that these international corporations bring to market. 

You recently visited the Rhône-Alpes region. What do you feel are the region's main benefits?

I was highly impressed with the research capabilities at the National Solar Energy Institute and the Grenoble Institute of Technologies. Both of these institutions are conducting state-of-the-art clean energy research and development and position the Rhone-Alps region as a leading European and global center of excellence on solar, smart grid, and battery and vehicle technologies.