Active Research Projects
Generating Diverse Building Decarbonization Pathways
Building decarbonization has along with it a myriad of other benefit such as improved comfort, regional economic growth, improvements in local air quality, health benefits for the occupants and local neighborhoods, lower operating costs, increased resilience to power outages, and if implemented well, benefits to social equity and energy justice.
Incorporating HVAC Energy Flexibility into Black Start Community Microgrids
The Smart Energy Storage Integration and Management Platform for Buildings (SESIMP-B) project led by GridScape Solutions with Pacific Northwestern National Labs (PNNL) and Columbia as Co-Investigators,aims to develop, test, and validate an innovative platform that enables easier integration and optimal management of building BESS, facilitating the widespread adoption of BESS for buildings.
News
Prof. Howard attends Climate Week Events
Prof. Howard attended the Great debate on whether Centralized vs Decentralized HVAC system were best for delivering decarbonized buildings in New York City held during #ClimateWeekNYC.
BERL Awarded DOE Grant
The BERL has been awarded a subcontract on a $1.5 Million DOE grant, Smart Energy Storage Integration and Management Platform for Buildings (SESIMP-B), whose aims are to develop, validate, and demonstrate a plug-and-play, smart commercial-building service panel that reduces complexity and cost for smart panel installation and DER integration. The project is led by Gridscape solutions and is partnered with Pacific Northwestern National Laboratory and Bolun Xu in the Columbia University Department of Electrical Engineering.
BERL awarded Columbia University SIRS Grant
The BERL was awarded the Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Sciences Interdisciplinary Research Seed Funding for a project entitled "Illuminating the Co-benefits of building stock decarbonization". This is an interdisciplinary project with Josh Whitford from the Department of Sociology at Columbia University and Gianpaolo Baiocchi, director of the Urban Democracy Lab at NYU.