DETROIT – NextEnergy, Michigan’s alternative energy technology accelerator, announced it has been awarded a $500,000 contract from the National Automotive Center in Warren to design and development an Advanced Mobile Microgrid System for Selfridge Air Force Base in Southeast Michigan.
The grid needs to be capable of providing the power required to operate military equipment should utility power or fuel systems get knocked out by terrorist attack, combat operations or a natural disaster.
NextEnergy will work closely with the NAC, Selfridge and DTE Energy to provide system engineering services to enable the rapid restoration of power in the event of unplanned outages within critical energy infrastructure at Selfridge, a base in Southeast Michigan.
The prototype design will lead to a transportable system capable of providing the power required to operate military equipment should utility power or fuel systems be compromised as a result of terrorist attack, combat operations, or natural disasters.
NextEnergy CEO James Croce describes this contract as the initial phase of NextEnergy’s strategy to position the State of Michigan as a leader in providing vital energy technology services for defense and homeland security applications.
In other news, NextEnergy also announced it had formed an external Technical Advisory Panel that will provide oversight of NextEnergy’s technical initiatives. Croce has appointed retired DaimlerChrysler executive Bernard I. Robertson to lead the panel. Robertson is joined by William Powers, retired Vice President of Research for Ford Motor Company and Vernon Roan, Jr., retired Director of the University of Florida’s Fuel Cell Laboratory and Center for Advanced Studies in Engineering, and Professor Emeritus of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.
Croce describes the Technical Advisory Panel as an entity to provide checks and balances with respect to the technical strategies and direction undertaken by NextEnergy, which now include mission critical on-site energy systems and alternative fuel infrastructure, including hydrogen and bio-based fuel production and distribution systems.
