COWI at New York Climate Week: Could microgrids solve future energy challenges?

New York Climate Week ranks among the world’s leading events on climate and sustainability.  

That makes it a natural setting for COWI to connect with current and potential customers, and to showcase our thought-leader expertise within renewable energy.  

COWI hosted summit panel debate about microgrids 

Together with European Energy, COWI hosted the panel debate Micro Grids: Lessons learned and future potential in front of a packed conference room as part of the annual summit organised by the Consulate General of Denmark in New York.  

“This high-level panel debate focused on how the use of microgrids can help overcome energy supply challenges, and how microgrids can create value for different industries and society at large. There is no doubt that we will see a massive growth within microgrid technologies in the coming years,” says Group Senior Market Director Jan Behrendt Ibsø, who represented COWI in the panel and at the debate. 

Participation from European Energy and NYSERDA 

The debate featured Doreen Harris, CEO & President of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), who delivered a keynote speech, and Rasmus Sandfeld, Chief Commercial Officer at European Energy. Tone Søndergaard, Director at Urban Future Lab / ACRE at NYU Tandon School of Engineering, moderated the event. 

European Energy shared lessons learned on microgrids and sector coupling from Kassø, the world’s first large-scale e-methanol production site, which turns renewable energy, water and CO₂ into a green fuel and chemical.  

Microgrids – the answer to decarbonisation and energy resilience?   

The microgrids theme has garnered a great deal of international attention for a reason. The global need for energy is increasing dramatically, and data centres accounted for 1.5% of all electricity consumption globally in 2024.

With the rise of AI, the energy need is expected to increase significantly towards 2030, and the transportation sector and other industries are also relying heavily on electricity, creating supply challenges.  

The recent massive power blackouts, such as those in Spain and Portugal in 2025 and in Texas in 2021, also underscored the need for a more resilient and independent energy supply.  

Some of the benefits of microgrids are that they can be operational quickly and fast-track the powering of projects, provide resilience in terms of power outages with battery energy storage and advanced power management, and are affordable clean power solutions in many markets.

Roundtable with industry leaders and policy makers 

Continuing the microgrid theme, on September 24, COWI co-hosted a roundtable in cooperation with the Consulate General of Denmark in New York with the participation of some thirty representatives from various companies, policy makers and investors.   

Titled Decarbonizing with Microgrids: The Power Solution for Data Centres, Heavy Transport & Industrial Sectors towards 2030, the roundtable discussed microgrids and their potential in creating climate-friendly energy solutions for various energy-intensive industries.