Feds award Georgia Tech $5.3 million for energy research

Georgia Tech’s Technology Square opened last deade and features research and education facilities as well as stores and restaurants. Ben Gray / bgray@ajc.com

Georgia Tech’s Technology Square opened last deade and features research and education facilities as well as stores and restaurants. Ben Gray / bgray@ajc.com

A federal agency has awarded Georgia Tech more than $5 million for two projects aimed at encouraging designers to develop the “next big thing” in energy.

One project could improve the power density of electric motors and reduce system size and weight. The other project is aimed at designing “an autonomous, resilient and cyber-secure protection and control system distributed to each power plant and substation on the grid.” The two awards total about $5.3 million.

The U.S. Department of Energy awarded $98 million in funding for 40 new projects as part of OPEN 2018, an effort to create technology to transform the nation’s energy system.

The grants were announced last week.