By Astrid Helene Mortensen and Nelly Sander

There is no doubt that the close collaboration between PowerCon and AAU Energy contributes to the green transition. According to PowerCon's Chief Technology Officer, Allan Holm Jørgensen, many of the company's innovative solutions have been developed in close collaboration with AAU Energy.

This also applies to PowerCon's shore power systems. When ships dock and use the shore power facilities to receive electricity from land, they can turn off their diesel generators, significantly reducing their CO2 emissions.

In fact, up to 40 percent of the ships' emissions can be eliminated with the technology, saving large amounts of CO2, NOx, and SOx that would otherwise be emitted.

Many Hours of Work from Both Sides

One of the most notable outcomes of the collaboration is the development of a so-called Modular Multilevel Converter (MMC), where AAU Energy has made significant contributions to the control system. This is explained by PowerCon’s CEO, Kim Brøndum Larsen:

"The MMC was a major project, in which both parties invested many hours, and it is a great example of how academic research can be translated into practical solutions with the potential to revolutionize the industry."

From Students to Collaborators

Two of PowerCon's three founders, Kim Brøndum Larsen and Allan Holm Jørgensen, are both graduates and former employees of AAU Energy. Many of the company's other employees are also alumni of AAU, and there is ongoing collaboration on internships and projects.

“We’ve been lucky to have hired really good employees who graduated from AAU. That’s why our location, and where the university is, is so important for our recruitment,” says Kim Brøndum Larsen.

The company has just reached 200 employees, spread across three main locations in Denmark: Hobro, Hinnerup, and Aulum. In addition, there are a few salespeople in Spain, England, and the USA. The company is heavily engineering-focused, with many employees in production, technology, and administration. In the academic world, the focus is primarily on software, electrical engineering, and mechanics.