Venture Capital Fund Boosts Financial Position of Dutch “Smart Grid” Company
Utrecht, the Netherlands – Scattered wind farms will be easy to connect to electricity networks with the adoption of new “smart grid” technology. This will avoid billions of tons of CO2 emissions each year. It is why Yellow&Blue Investment Management B.V., a Netherlands-based venture capital fund active in the clean energy world, decided to invest millions of Euros in the Dutch “smart grid” developers, Locamation B.V.
A “smart grid” is a modern network that delivers electricity from power suppliers to consumers using digital technology. Newton-Evans Research estimated that the size of the global potential market for smart grid technology is nearly billion. The use of smart grid technology can lead to huge amounts of energy savings and can bring electricity made from renewable energy sources (e.g. wind farms) into the existing electricity networks. The worldwide potential for reduction of CO2 emissions is two billion tons per year, which means cost savings of €79 billion for electricity producers, according to an estimate by The Climate Group. In the USA alone, the US Department of Energy estimated that if the grid were just 5% more efficient, the energy savings would be equal to permanently eliminating the fuel and greenhouse gas emissions from 53 million cars.
Albert Fischer, Managing Director of Yellow&Blue, points out: “Upgrading existing electricity networks will reduce the cost of energy and also integrate renewable power generation facilities, such as wind farms, micro CHP (combined heat and power generation) and solar PV arrays. Locamation provides an effective and cost-competitive solution for the needed upgrading which is why we want to help them launch their smart grid technology into the market.”
Ton Jansen, Managing Director of Locamation: “We’re excited by the potential for our business and are pleased to have partnered with Yellow&Blue Investment Management B.V., given their international connections and experience working with high-growth technology companies. Building on our success to date, this investment will accelerate our growth in the Netherlands and in other international markets.”
Locamation, located in Hengelo, is an innovation company that develops and produces industrial computers and electrical products geared to individual customer’s requirements.
