Japan's largest power generation company will work with the US university to commercialise clean energy tech spinouts.
JERA Americas, the US subsidiary of Japanese energy company JERA Group, is teaming up with University of California, Berkeley, to co-create next-generation clean energy technologies and business initiatives.
JERA’s corporate venture arm, JERA Ventures, will lead the collaboration between the energy company and the Institute of Business Innovation, part of the US research university’s Haas School of Business.
As part of the agreement, JERA, Japan’s largest power generation company, and the university will work on the commercialisation of spinouts and technologies developed by university researchers.
They will also jointly research decarbonisation, digital technologies, robotics and physical AI.
“Innovation in the energy industry is rapidly advancing, driven by both an increased need for power and the challenge of transforming to cleaner, more sustainable generation,” said Chris Bush, executive director of the Institute for Business Innovation at the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business, in a release.
“We’re looking forward to engaging with JERA Ventures to put research and concept into practice and commercialise technologies ranging from new battery approaches to novel computing applications for the energy sector,” he said.
Last month, JERA invested $10m in TeraWatt Technology, a California startup that manufactures what it describes as lighter, smaller and more powerful lithium-ion batteries. As part of the deal, the two companies will collaborate on producing battery storage systems in Japan.
Demand for battery storage is expected to grow as it plays a key role in providing the electricity grid system flexibility needed for the the continued expansion of renewable energy.
See all the recent JERA-backed startup deals the CVC Funding Round Database
