|
The Regional President of the Azores as well as Azorean business and academic leaders united in support of the MIT Portugal Program and its Green Islands Initiative during a visit to São Miguel island by the Program’s leadership during the week of January 19, 2009.
 Professor Steve Connors and researcher Ned Spang visit an Azorean geothermal plant
President Carlos César met on January 22 with the leaders of the Green Islands Initiative, Professors Paulo Ferrão (also the National Director of MIT Portugal) and Stephen Connors. The meeting with President César capped a week of high-level meetings that established new strategic partnerships in support of the Green Islands Initiative with the Regional Government, regional electric utility Electricidade dos Açores (EDA), and the University of the Azores. Faculty leaders of MIT Portugal, from both MIT and Portuguese institutions, also toured a local geothermal power station.
 Professors Connors and Ferrao meet with Carlos César, Regional President of the Azores (Photo: Açoriano Oriental, Eduardo Costa) The goal of the Green Islands Initiative is to make two or more islands in the Azores extremely energy self-sufficient by 2018. Professor Ferrão stated in an interview with Azorean journalists that this effort would be led by “tripling the amount of energy drawn from renewable sources, in terms of primary energy.”
The Green Islands Initiative is one of the flagship cross-cutting projects of the MIT Portugal Program, drawing on the research portfolio and industrial partnerships of all four of the Program’s focus areas: Bio-Engineering, Engineering Design and Advanced Manufacturing, Sustainable Energy Systems, and Transportation Systems.
(Click here for the account of the meeting between MIT Portugal and President César on the Azores government website.)
|
