IBM and the European Commission released a joint announcement saying that Big Blue is teaming up with an EU-backed consortium to kick off EcoGrid EU, a part-green, part-social experiment that’s meant to increase public awareness of renewable energy using connected devices.

The  EcoGrid EU  will be piloted on the Danish island of Bornholm with 1/10 of the local population, or about 2000 people.  Smart controllers will be installed in their homes, which will connect to some of the electronics in their household.

“These will be used to automate select appliances such as dishwashers, heat pumps and electric water heaters as energy prices adjust in five-minute increments.”

These controllers will be supplemented with smart meters and a cloud-based app that allow participants to schedule online electricity purchases, and set the price. The green aspect is that renewable energy offered by some of the 16 partners participating in the project will be displayed next to fossil fuel energy, and that eco-conscious consumers will select the former.

IBM and the EU hope that the project will be a hit in this area because the green energy trend is pretty big among residents of the Nordic Nation, according to a report by the Danish Energy Agency.

IBM, in addition to other tech companies, has been working hard on pushing the green tech thread forward.  Big Blue, AMD and several others are participating in an initiative started by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (N.Y.S.E.R.D.A) to reduce energy consumption in datacenters.