Program mission
Globally, buildings and people’s activities in buildings are responsible for more than 30% of the final energy use. This means that buildings and people need to be an integral part of energy transition strategies to meet long-term sustainable climate goals.
This program takes a multi-disciplinary and ‘whole systems’ approach to solving challenges associated with how buildings and industry generate, distribute, use and recover energy and the associated environmental, social and economic impacts. It encompasses the:
- energy efficiency and recovery considerations of the whole life cycle of buildings (from cradle-to-cradle, including building product manufacture; building design, construction, operation and end-of-life repurposing)
- operational energy processes and practices in buildings and industry (e.g. energy efficiency; heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration (HVAC&R); process heat; waste heat recovery; thermal storage; onsite generation; battery storage; hydrogen storage; stationary fuel cells; electrolysers; and BeV, PHeV, FCeVEV fleets)
- interaction between buildings, industry and the electricity grid (e.g. power purchase agreements; peak demand, demand management and resilience at a site and enterprise level)
