Congratulations to the Energy Graduate Group Class of 2025!
We are thrilled to congratulate Pablo Busch, Maria Kanwal, Yudi Li, Francisco Pares Olguin, Hong Yang, Hayley Amo and Nikunj Bhartia upon your graduation! We’re excited to see how your talents will shape the future of energy. Wishing you continued growth and meaningful impact in the future.
Watch the 2025 California Demand Flexibility Summit
Thank you to everyone who helped make the 2025 California Demand Flexibility Summit such a success! More than 400 attendees joined us at UC Davis to explore how demand-side strategies can unlock a cleaner, more resilient, and more affordable energy future.
Whether you attended in person or are just now tuning in, you can now watch full recordings of every keynote, panel, and fireside chat from the Summit. From dynamic pricing to flexible technologies, equitable access to breakthrough market solutions, these conversations are shaping California’s clean energy future.
CLTC Director Travels to Thailand for Inaugural LED Lighting Design Competition
CLTC Director Michael Siminovitch traveled to Thailand to lead the inaugural LED Lighting Design Competition at Khon Kaen University. The month-long program, hosted by the university’s School of Architecture, brought together 30 students to design and prototype aesthetically compelling, functional LED pathway lights. This initiative builds on UC Davis’s longstanding lighting design competition and reflects a growing collaboration with KKU around sustainable design and innovation.
WCEC Team Tests Real-World Performance of Low-GWP Heat Pumps
A new WCEC report explores affordable strategies to accelerate adoption of low-global-warming-potential (low-GWP) heat pumps in California homes. Led by WCEC Director Vinod Narayanan, Co-Director of Engineering Curtis Harrington, and Market Transformation Research Director Sarah Outcault, the project evaluated both near- and medium-term solutions through lab testing, field demonstrations, and performance modeling.
Findings show that the heat pumps reduced greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 90 percent compared to the gas systems they replaced. The team also advanced a novel polymer heat exchanger design to support long-term market transformation as refrigerant standards tighten.
UC Davis Research on Floating Solar Featured in Grist
Wild Energy Center researchers were in the spotlight in a recent Grist feature exploring the ecological impacts of floating solar. Director Rebecca Hernandez and graduate researcher Amanda Bujosa share why understanding how floating solar affects aquatic ecosystems is essential as the technology scales. Their work is helping define a critical research agenda at the intersection of clean energy and environmental stewardship.
Lab2Slab Pours New Sustainable Test Concrete
The UC Pavement Research Center hosted a Lab2Slab construction event in June, placing three new concrete test slabs using alternative cement blends aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The event drew researchers, industry partners, and students to observe the latest step in testing more sustainable pavement materials.
Missed a Seminar? Watch It Now
If you couldn’t join us for our recent Demand Flex or Energy Bites Seminar Series events, you can now watch it online! Catch up on this and other recent seminars anytime!
