Students of the School of Engineering and Automotive are ready to accelerate the energy transition together with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). School dean Gerrit Averesch believes in Ondernemersbelang that you cannot do an energy transition without an engineer. “Because a lot in the energy transition is technical in nature.”

The energy transition is an irreversible process and also affects SMEs. “Every person in every company has to deal with energy. Any entrepreneur will have to take all kinds of new rules into account,” says Joke Westra. She is a lecturer and senior researcher at the HAN and gives as an example that the price for CO₂ emission rights has risen so much.

“There is also a large group of entrepreneurs with a vision, they want to develop, grow and innovate. As a partner in the region, students and lecturers from Engineering and Automotive can help SMEs with their role in the energy transition.”

Electricity supply and demand

As an example, Joke mentions the balance between the supply of and demand for electricity. “If a company wants to connect a large number of solar panels, it encounters all sorts of blockages. They run into grid problems; the cable simply can’t cope,” she explains. “Just think of the agricultural companies in the outlying areas with their huge roofs. This is a major task for companies like Tennet and Alliander, which is not easy to solve. A shortage of manpower at network companies and others is one of the bottlenecks in the energy transition.”

Traineeship at Alliander

“It might be much more interesting to work with companies to tap into new target groups. For example, a senior secondary vocational student who no longer wants to go to school but is open to a traineeship at Alliander and is taking a part-time higher vocational education degree course with us. Or a status holder, with or without technical background. We have been running an associate degree programme in Electrical Engineering and Energy Technology for these specific target groups for a few years now,” says Joke. “In two years’ time, a student develops into an energy technology engineer, among other things, to adapt the electricity network.”

Working more proactively with companies

Gerrit: “We want to cooperate much more pro-actively with companies. Whether it is technical or personnel case. We can often complete small assignments with a student. And we can make a large research question part of a large national subsidy application.

An SME that wants to innovate, is motivated to contribute to the energy transition or has a good plan can enter into a partnership or collaborative relationship with the HAN. Together we’ll look for new developments, interesting projects and funding. “We do applied research with SME companies deliberately, whereby we write a project proposal together with those companies in order to obtain subsidies, because we have that partnership. Both the companies and the school benefit from this,” Joke explains.

Students have up to date and special knowledge

“We can be of service to the company with valuable knowledge and innovations; and the company provides particularly interesting cases for our education. So the students who graduate have current and special prior knowledge.” According to Joke, these students are well-versed in the problems facing the region. “We see that most labour relations are established that way. As the HAN, we are brokers and connectors of knowledge,” adds Gerrit.

Source and photography: Ondernemersbelang