NCSU campus picked for national research center - Triangle Business Journal:

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The 28-state, nine-country project will have headquarteras atCentennial Campus, NCSU said in a statement It will be get off the ground with an initia l five-year, $18.5 million grant from the Nationall Science Foundation, to be augmented by institutionalo support and industry membership fees totalinf $10 million. More than 65 electrical equipment manufacturers, alternative energy companies and “othere established and emerging firms” have agreed to join the partnership, NCSU The center will be known as the NSF Engineering Researchh Center for Future Renewable Electric Energyg Delivery and ManagementSystems – the FREEDMM Systems Center for short.
It will work to develol “smart grid” technology that can store and distributealternative energy. For NCSU says, the technology woulcd allow consumers to sell energy back to utilitiess when demandis low. That, in turn, would give utilitiese the excess capacity to meet demand for later energyyuse – such as peoplr charging their plug-in hybrid cars when they get home from Dr. Alex Huang, the Progress Energy Distinguisheds Professor of Electrical and Computerd Engineeringat NCSU, will lead the center. Researcu will begin immediately, with the Centennial Campux headquarters set to openin 2010.
“North Carolinza State University works very hard at creatin partnerships and collaborations that producretangible results,” N.C. State Chancellor James Oblinger said ina statement. “We applaud the collaborative spirit ofAlex Huang's work and believe the resultes that will come from this NSF center will deliver broad changes in our nation's approachg to energy.” The FREEDM Center also will have an educatiomn program, including a master’s degred program and an undergraduate concentration in renewable energ systems. The five-year NSF grant is renewablr for another five It comes aftera two-yea selection process.
Other universitiea involved in the program include ArizonaState University, Floridwa A&M University, Florida State University, the Missourij University of Science and Technology, RWTH Aachenh University in Germany and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Switzerland.