Nonprofit group will seek funding for clean-energy research and collaborate on projects to support energy resiliency
Norwich University and the University of Vermont are joining manufacturing and electric utility companies and state and local Vermont government officials to launch the Vermont Clean and Resilient Energy Consortium, a group devoted to developing and delivering clean energy.
In a statement, the University of Vermont said the nonprofit consortium will seek funding for clean-energy research and economic and commercial development and will collaborate on projects to support clean-energy delivery, renewable energy, decarbonization and energy resiliency.
The consortium’s energy groups are Burlington Electric, Renewable Energy Vermont, Green Mountain Power, Vermont Electric Power Co., the Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies, GlobalFoundries and the Vermont State Colleges System.
The nonprofit consortium will seek funding for clean-energy research and economic and commercial development and will collaborate on projects to support clean-energy delivery, renewable energy, decarbonization and energy resiliency.
“Vermont is in a unique position to become a statewide test bed for innovative ideas in clean, green energy,” UVM Vice President for Research Kirk Dombrowski said in an emailed statement. “The partnership of utility companies like Burlington Electric, manufacturing companies like (GlobalFoundries), and researchers at UVM, Norwich University, and Vermont State Colleges makes the (consortium) ready to advise and influence renewable energy standards throughout the state and into the national stage.”
The Vermont Green Hydrogen Partnership, which includes the University of Vermont, Vermont Gas Systems and GlobalFoundries, was unveiled in January.
In the project, the consortium’s first initiative, devices known as electrolyzers, powered by renewable electricity sources such as wind and solar, will extract hydrogen from water without producing new carbon emissions at GlobalFoundries Fab 9 campus in Essex Junction, Vermont, thereby yielding green hydrogen.
Green hydrogen can be blended with natural gas and used directly in boilers, furnaces, and other appliances. For the pilot project, green hydrogen will be blended only into GlobalFoundries’ on-site systems in Essex Junction.
Vermont Gas Systems called green hydrogen an important strategic innovation to displace fossil gas and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in support of Vermont’s Global Warming Solutions Act.
Dr. Karen Hinkle, Norwich University’s associate provost for research, said Norwich’s energy consortium membership connects the university with academic and business leaders statewide who are making significant energy resilience contributions and discoveries.
“It provides us with access to potential funding sources and collaborative and interdisciplinary opportunities for our students and faculty working toward solutions to critical energy questions that Vermont is facing,” Hinkle wrote in an email.
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