Iberdrola Perseo: from demigod to leading R&D&i

18 Mar 2015

The electricity company has invested 40 million euros in its program, with which it promotes technological initiatives such as the drone Aracnocóptero.

If Perseus founded the capital of one of the most prosperous Western civilizations of antiquity, Mycenae, for Iberdrola, the Greek demigod, son of Zeus and Danae, gives part of the name to its corporate venture capital program, Iberdrola Ventures-Perseus, through which all investments destined for technology are distributed –some of them high-flying, such as the Salamanca-based arachnocopter– and disruptive businesses, whose objective is to ensure the sustainability of the energy model.

One of the main and strategic lines of the company chaired by Salamanca-born Ignacio Sánchez Galán is renewable energies, such as solar in its photovoltaic and thermal forms, offshore wind, or marine. But not only technology itself, but the active search for business models that make such developments profitable, ready to change the energy paradigm.

The electric giant also works in other fields, closely related to a group of such characteristics, such as energy efficiency, sustainability of the sector or new methods of operation and maintenance.

«Since its creation in 2008, 40 million euros have been invested through the program in startups that develop technologies and new businesses in the energy sector worldwide,» say sources from the company.

Furthermore, during this five-year period starting in 2012 when the agreement was signed for Perseus to be even more powerful than the entire Mycenaean people together, 25 million euros have been invested by Iberdrola and the Center for Industrial Technological Development, better known as the CDTI, all of them directed towards R&D&I in energy.

The first investment took place in 2013 in Salamanca’s Arbórea Intellbird, located in the USAL Science Park, where half a million euros will go. The company is already known for this supplement: it manufactures unmanned aerial vehicles, drones, with a multitude of applications. Arachnocóptero EoI6 is the small helicopter that monitors the blades of wind turbines.

«Together with its associated software platform, it allows for increased efficiency of maintenance inspections in wind turbines, reducing downtime and achieving a level of detail far superior to that of traditional inspection methods,» explain the same sources.

Source: El Mundo