On 16 February, Lehendakari Iñigo Urkullu, president of the Basque Government, participated in the opening of TECNALIA’s new Research, Development and Certification Laboratories for Electrical Equipment for Smart Grids. At the opening ceremony, he was accompanied by Asis Canales and Joseba Jauregizar, ViceChairman and Managing Director of TECNALIA Research & Innovation, respectively.
TECNALIA has invested 14 million Euros in these laboratories, which are located in the new Building 413 on the Bizkaia Science and Technology Park, becoming a part of TECNALIA’s InGRID experimental infrastructure for Smart Grids. Together with the facilities in Building 700, these new laboratories complete TECNALIA’s global offering in low, medium and high voltage electricity research. These European benchmark facilities will focus on researching Smart Grids and will service the electrical equipment goods manufacturing sector as well as utilities.
These new facilities are one of TECNALIA’s most relevant commitments, responding to the current and future needs of electrical distribution and transmission grids and, more specifically, for the development of Smart Grids. The new building, with a total area of 3,500 square meters, is a leading example of sustainable architecture, in both energy efficiency and structural design.
Today, TECNALIA has taken another step towards transforming Knowledge into GDP and becoming a global technology benchmark, creating an infrastructure unsurpassed in Europe that will allow it to provide support to R&D&I in the Electrical Power sector in this country, while maintaining its international recognition. The High Voltage Laboratory stands out in this infrastructure, as the largest independent High Voltage Laboratory in Spain and Portugal.
TECNALIA will make this new experimental infrastructure available for the industrial and the scientific-technological communities to test the equipment and systems that will integrate and configure the power grids of the future. These new facilities will contribute to strengthening the role of electrical power as the most efficient energy transfer medium, with the ability to respond in real-time to the needs of generators and consumers.
Energy is one of the main entrepreneurial sectors in the Basque Country, thanks to the presence of renowned world leading companies. Energy is also a strategic and competitiveness indicator, and an activity sector with great potential to generate employment and wealth while facing the new challenges of the 21st Century.
In this context, Smart Grids and renewable energy sources have become, in their own right and due to the needs of companies and society at large, the priority areas for research centres in Europe and significant investments are planned over the next 15 years.
The new facilities that TECNALIA inaugurates today, focusing on R&D&I in energy, are in-line with the Basque strategic smart specialisation priorities established in the RIS-3 Strategy for the Basque Country.
TECNALIA is a reference in technological development of electrical equipment. The unique selling point of these new facilities is their comprehensive service, providing industry, universities and research centres with a set of advanced experimentation platforms to develop services and conduct research, in order to achieve more efficient and smarter management of electrical power throughout the entire process: generation, transport and distribution, and end use. The opportunity created by hosting this infrastructure is obvious, since it provides decisive technological support for landmark projects that will be developed in the Basque Country for years to come.
These new facilities will also provide support to the highly capable electricity sector entrepreneurial network in the Basque Country in order to develop innovative and competitive products on a global level.
Original source: Tecnalia
