This initiative, aimed at both promoting our local territory to Colorado representatives, and strengthening existing technological partnerships between the TENERRDIS renewable energy cluster and NREL (The U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory), is piloted by AEPI (The Grenoble-Isere Economic Development Agency) and TENERRDIS, within the framework of CORA (Colorado Rhone-Alpes Partnership).

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Through various exchanges over the last few months between stakeholders from the regions, two key thrusts have emerged: SOLAR PV and SMART GRIDS, illustrating the players’ strong respective capacities for innovation and potential synergies. The TENERRDIS cluster, which aims to assist and reinforce networking between research centers, companies and universities, has already facilitated funding for 40 collaborative R&D projects in solar PV and smart grids. The leaders of the TENERRDIS programs in these technological areas are already working in close relationship with their NREL colleagues.

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The agenda for the Denver delegation includes three strong themes:

• One full day dedicated to solar PV
• One full day dedicated to smart grids

• VIP meetings with local authorities

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The delegation will spend their first day at the Rhone-Alpes regional headquarters where they will meet with Mrs Helene Blanchard, vice-president in charge of environment within the Rhone-Alpes Region. Next, they will spend a full day at INES (The National Institute for Solar Energy) to meet with key solar PV players. The third day will be dedicated to smart grids at G2Elab at Grenoble INP (Grenoble Institute of Technology), including a visit of the PREDIS technological platform. The members of the Colorado delegation will then be welcomed by Claude Graff, chairman of TENERRDIS, at a VIP business luncheon gathering, and by Alain Cottalorda, president of AEPI and CAPI; Genevieve Fioraso, member of the French Parliament; Senator Jean-Pierre Vial; Erwan Binet, vice-president in charge of economy at the Grenoble Isere County Council; Paul Jacquet, president of Grenoble Institute of Technology, and Didier Marsacq, director of CEA-Liten.

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The US delegation includes the following members:

David Hiller, executive director of CREC (The Colorado Renewable Energy Collaboratory), invited by ERAI (Entreprise Rhone-Alpes International) within the framework of their « Cluster Mobility » program, Bob Snyder, president of CORA; NREL representatives including William Farris (vice-president for commercialization and technology transfer) and Ron Benioff (manager, international programs), as well as Sunil Cherian, CEO of Spirae, Inc.

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« Facilitating exchanges between companies and research centers leverages the economic development of a region. AEPI is playing an active role in this partnership policy with specific strategic regions of the world. It was not by chance that we made the decision to engage ourselves within CORA, a talented partner in Colorado, a state which shares a significant number of similarities with the Rhone-Alpes region, » declares Alain Cottalorda, president of AEPI.

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« This visit is fully in line with the international strategy of the TENERRDIS cluster, whose objective is to network with the best laboratories in the world (in the United States of course, but also in Japan and the United Kingdom, as well, where we recently coordinated a French delegation at the Grove Fuel Cell Symposium). TENERRDIS, the cluster of reference for new energy technologies, and NREL, reference laboratory in this domain, are confirming today their willingness to further cooperate at a technological scale, » declares Claude Graff, chairman of TENERRDIS and Executive VP, Renewable Energies at Schneider Electric. «It is an unprecedented event for TENERRDIS, which, having pioneered the cluster’s international development, is helping the cluster to reap the benefits of its strategy today».

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“The visits to Colorado by representatives of TENERRDIS and the Grenoble-Isere research institutions highlighted the many research, industry and environmental values that our regions share,” reports David Hiller, Director of the Colorado Renewable Energy Collaboratory, a research consortium of NREL and three universities. “We are very pleased to bring leaders of Colorado’s clean energy community here to France to continue this dialogue. This busy week of formal and informal discussions among research and industrial leaders of both communities will chart a course to a future of cooperative research that will serve both nations and the world at large.”

AEPI & Tenerrdis welcome a Colordao delegation of actors (industyrials & public body)

The complete press release: here