Alstom, CEA – INES establish R&D centre in France

Alstom Grid, a sector of Alstom, has joined forces with CEA – INES (Institut national de l’énergie solaire), a French state-owned research entitiy, to develop a research and development Centre in Chambery.

The joint R&D laboratory will be located in INES’ Chambery campus to develop energy storage solutions and integrate renewable energy farms into smart transmission and distribution grids.

Alstom Grid Grid Power and Automation senior vice-president Patrick Plas said with the creation of this R&D centre, the research for large-scale energy storage solutions will accelerate.

“Already at the forefront of Smart Grid innovation, this partnership will allow us to develop and test new technologies and build CO2 free electrical grids,” Plas added.

CEA Technological Research director Jean Therme said this partnership combines our recognised expertise around Solar and Storage with Alstom Grid’s research and development programmes as well as our joint first returns of experience from current demonstrator projects around the world.

“Collaborating together on sustainable technology research will be a major step for our two organisations,” Therme said.

The lab will benefit from the expertise of the two organisations in storage and solar applications along with its existing testing capability across various ranges of solar and storage technologies.

Alstom Grid will contribute its expertise in power electronics, power conversion and Smart Grid control room integration.

The partnership will develop innovative breakthroughs, expand services and solutions and speed up the deployment of the embedded storage into Smart Grid systems.

The lab will also examine the usage of direct current applications into the smart cities projects.