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GridBridge, developer and enabler of power delivery systems, was recently awarded over $700,000 from the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program for the company’s Highly Efficient GridBridge Grid Energy Router.
Each year, the NSF awards funding to businesses that are developing transformative technologies. GridBridge’s selection signifies the tremendous market opportunity for the company’s advanced intelligent energy routing technology. Chad Eckhardt, president and CEO of GridBridge, proudly commented: “Many prominent companies including Cree, SunPower, and First Solar benefited enormously from SBIR grants during their early growth, and we are honored to be included in this elite program.”
GridBridge’s technology enables individual locations and utilities to integrate many distributed sources of power while also increasing system efficiency and safety. This functionality is important in many applications including the electrical grid, aerospace, commercial locations and vehicles. Within the electrical grid, GridBridge’s technology incorporates renewables, storage, electric vehicles, and many other new technologies, while also achieving greater efficiency gains.
“Rapid acceleration of PV penetration, energy storage, and electric vehicles makes the electric grid much more complex to operate. The market is now recognizing that with complexity also comes significant opportunity, and that electronic-based solutions like those that GridBridge are deploying can solve a variety of those electrical network problems,” noted Damir Novosel, president-elect of IEEE-PES.
“This is a new era of multifunctional technology for the grid that has the capability to evolve as power delivery demands become more intricate. GridBridge is introducing the platforms necessary for improving power delivery that will be required in the coming years and is currently proving these in live distribution feeder applications,” adds Mark Munday, former CTO at Elster Group.
This Phase 2 grant from NSF comes after GridBridge was selected by NASA in July to translate its technology into high-profile aerospace applications and a selection in January to join and receive funding from a $140 million White House initiative to accelerate the commercialization of applications for wide band gap (WBG) technology.
(Photo Credit: Commons Wikimedia)