Engineering grant spurs green energy innovation

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11 May 2011 News

National Instruments recently announced its 2011 Green Engineering Grant programme, a worldwide competitive programme that fosters rapid design, prototyping and commercialisation of promising new renewable energy, energy efficiency and smart grid systems. Through the programme, the company will donate up to $25 000 equivalent in NI LabVIEW graphical system design software tools and training to eligible startups to help advance clean energy development in applications such as solar, wind and biofuel technology. The 2011 programme has a special focus on technologies that improve the smart grid and provide the foundation for a clean energy future.

LabVIEW software and the Lab-VIEW FPGA module, as well as embedded prototyping and deployment platforms such as NI CompactRIO and PXI instrumentation, are well suited for building innovative control and monitoring solutions for the renewable energy market. Small companies throughout many countries have combined the open, graphical nature of LabVIEW software with the high-performance characteristics of modular, reconfigurable NI hardware to prototype and prove advanced embedded designs quickly.

“With only three employees, we work hard to develop clean energy solutions for people in developing nations,” said Matt Bennett, vice president of research and development for Windlift, a startup company that develops mobile airborne wind energy systems, including onboard energy storage for mobile microgrids in post-conflict reconstruction and disaster relief. “The NI Green Engineering Grant gave us the tools to facilitate rapid development of our technology, helping us to progress from concept to prototype in just eight months. Also, the same hardware and software will carry through the entire technology development process, providing a smooth transition when we are ready to enter production.”

To date, the NI Green Engineering Grant programme has delivered NI software and training to more than 40 startups and small companies working on a variety of revolutionary renewable energy applications. The following examples demonstrate how past grant recipients are using NI tools in their renewable energy solutions:

* Powering remote villages with portable airborne wind technology.

* Producing quality transportation fuels from inedible plants.

* Generating electricity by harnessing ocean thermal energy.

More information about the 2011 NI Green Engineering Grant programme can be found at www.ni.com/greengrant.

For more information contact National Instruments, 0800 203 199, [email protected], www.ni.com/southafrica

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Engineering grant spurs green energy innovation

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