Robert Cox will spend the next decade positioning Charlotte as the Silicon Valley of energy

CHARLOTTE — Robert Cox will spend the next decade positioning Charlotte as the Silicon Valley of energy.

Cox is director of UNC Charlotte’s Energy, Production and Infrastructure Center — or EPIC. He played a key role in securing up to $160 million from the National Science Foundation for the school to lead the NSF Grid Modernization Engine in the Carolinas, called the Carolinas Grid Engine.

NSF engines look to build and scale innovation clusters around critical technologies.

“It is going to transform us,” Cox says.

Conservative estimates are the engine will generate economic impact of $2 billion and create 20,000 jobs as new technology is commercialized, startups form and the workforce development pipeline grows, he says.

Cox will serve as co-chief technology officer for the engine. It will span 36 counties in the Carolinas with support from 100-plus entities including academic partners, industry, government agencies, nonprofits and venture capital.

Cox talked with CBJ about the NSF engine, EPIC and efforts to modernize the grid. Read that interview here.

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