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What does your job at Brainport Development entail?

‘Brainport Development is part of the Brainport Foundation and functions as the economic development agency for the Brainport region. We connect companies, municipalities, and knowledge/research institutions to address issues related to technology and entrepreneurship, talent development, and societal challenges in the Eindhoven Metropolitan Area. This is a partnership in Southeast Brabant comprising 21 municipalities, with Eindhoven as its economic heart.

Within Brainport Development, I am part of the Tech-Market team; we focus primarily on technology and entrepreneurship. We help shape and execute the regional economic strategy, realize innovation projects, offer business advice and promote Brainport Eindhoven at home and abroad. Most importantly, we bring companies and municipalities together, both in large-scale consortia and bilaterally, when we believe they can advance each other.

As a program manager for energy, I am responsible for developing innovative public-private partnership projects that help accelerate the energy transition and contribute to the vision of our energy program, namely to achieve an autonomous, resilient, fossil-fuel-free, and emission-free energy system for a healthy living and business environment in Brainport Eindhoven.’

What challenges does the region face when it comes to the energy transition?

‘As any economic development agency we want to foster economic activity, but we are currently limited by grid congestion. New businesses cannot get connected to the electricity grid, and existing businesses cannot expand. We actively engage in discussions within the triple helix about how we can develop economic activity in times of grid congestion. In addition, we strive to accelerate technological developments that provide a solution to this pressing problem and help government and net operators to accelerate the upgrade of the energy network.’
 

Where can Brainport make a difference when it comes to the energy transition?

‘The energy system is associated with an extensive value chain, ranging from generation and storage to conversion, transportation, distribution, and smart usage. As a region, we want to build critical positions within that value chain. To that end, we are looking for niches where we can become key players. This is a strategic process we are currently in the midst of, working with companies and municipalities to determine where our strengths and opportunities lie.

Since our region is a high-tech manufacturing hub, we see ample opportunities in storage, conversion, and smart usage. For example, within the Battery Competence Cluster NL, we are working on stationary and mobile battery solutions. We are also exploring new developments in iron power, e-methane, and electrolysers, such as solid oxide solutions. Our role is to build connections, expand existing market shares, and create entry points for new players in those markets.’
 

What role does scientific research play in this?

‘Research institutes like EIRES can nourish and inspire the ecosystem with the latest developments and insights. As Brainport Development, we have many partnerships with ºÚÁϸ£ÀûÍø to bridge the gap between fundamental knowledge and new business activity. For example, we help scale up prototypes from the lab to scales that are attractive for industry to get involved in.

We want to encourage parties to collaborate more closely to increase overall system efficiency. In the energy sector, it is hard for individual companies to establish a viable business case. But if we bring them together and look at the entire system, we hope to find a technical solution that is economically feasible.

In the end, I hope that we can demonstrate a solid business case that can both boost the region’s earning potential and at the same time provide a solution to the societal problems of grid congestion and climate change. I strongly believe that collective solutions are needed, and that we can kill two birds with one stone if we join our forces in the region: By developing sustainable technology, we create a way out of the acute grid congestion problem and generate new revenue potential for the region’s future.

This region is unique. Many companies here recognize the value of the collective. Of course, there is often friction between short-term results and long-term vision, but we have a collective recognition here that the energy system is shifting from a centralized system to a collection of decentralized systems. This is a notion scientific research can emphasize. We also need to gain insights into where the specific demand for decentralized components lies, and at what aggregation level this should be organized. This requires openness from stakeholders, such as companies and regional grid operators, regarding who consumes what, where and when, and where flexibility is or isn’t available. Can a company shift its peak consumption, or is their timing fixed? Are there parties whose consumption patterns are countercyclical that could be combined in a smart way to shift the load on the grid?’

What role can or should EIRES play in all of this?

‘The energy transition is a major challenge. A great deal of scientific research is still needed to help accelerate that transition. EIRES can distinguish itself through applied research focused on promising solutions that offer added value for industry and the region. Researchers should test their ideas for feasibility: can their proposed solutions

ever become financially viable? Are the required resources, for example when it comes to materials, abundantly available?

Establishing energy independence is essential for the region and for the Netherlands. In addition to this, we must also factor in resilience against external risks, such as attacks, while developing the energy system of the future. It is good to see that EIRES shares our views on the importance of these matters.’
 

What do you think the future will look like regarding energy systems in the Brainport region?

‘We will see an energy system that consists of a small number of functions at the central level that require economy of scale to be profitable, and many more decentralized energy systems below that, which are of a more multi-commodity nature, rather than mostly electricity-based. In my wildest dreams, those systems are continuously optimized in real time, both to reduce costs and to prevent grid congestion.

Most of all, I hope that in due time, we will be able to achieve energy independence with a system based on redundancy in interconnected hubs, that will be much more robust against outside interference. And that as a region, we will indeed manage to simultaneously improve both our business climate and quality of life. Anyone interested in accelerating the energy transition in the Brainport region can feel free to reach out to me.’

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