The University of California, Davis, has been selected to host the second energy institute for young African leaders who are tackling energy challenges in their countries. Last year, UC Davis pioneered the fellowship’s first energy-themed institute for 25 participants from the Mandela Washington Fellowship Program. The UC Davis institute will be held June 17 through July 29. Fellows will gain skills around the design, evaluation and viability of clean energy projects; approaches to the integration of renewable energy and energy efficiency strategies; and an understanding of innovative policy, regulatory and entrepreneurial approaches to energy projection and distribution.

For more information, please click here.

Art Rosenfeld, a long-standing Energy Efficiency Center Board member and the honoree of our Chair in Energy Efficiency, whose groundbreaking leadership established the field of energy efficiency for the benefit of California and beyond, died today (Friday) at his home in Berkeley, California. He was an inspiration as a person, scientist, and citizen.

To read more about Art’s career and contributions, please click here.

UC Davis announced 13 Big Ideas that will help propel the university’s second comprehensive fundraising campaign. Dr. Kurt Kornbluth of the EEC’s Program for International Energy Technologies is the faculty champion for the Big Idea “Leading the Way to Climate Neutrality.” In the coming months, these big ideas will undergo feasibility studies and will be marketed to targeted groups.

For more information on UC Davis Big Ideas, click here.
For more information on the Leading the Way to Climate Neutrality Initiative, click here.

December 29, 2016

The University of California, Davis, is the greenest university in the world, as declared by the seventh annual GreenMetric ranking from the University of Indonesia for environmentally friendly campus operations and policies, and research and education on sustainability.

UC Davis ranked first among the participating colleges and universities for transportation, including bus and bicycle use, and earned a perfect score in the waste category, for waste reduction and recycling, among other factors.

Other criteria included renewable energy (UC Davis generates 14 percent of its power supply from a new solar farm), and energy efficiency and water conservation. The ranking also looked at green building implementation (UC Davis has 23 LEED projects, as well as the largest planned zero-net energy community in the nation, West Village).

Finally, in education, the ranking looked at such factors as published research on sustainability and number of courses related to sustainability.

For more information, please click here.

Providing the future employees to the developing energy efficiency industry is happening right here in Yolo County, where UC Davis has been actively involved on the front lines of energy research: Western Cooling Efficiency Center, Solar Decathlon, and National Center for Sustainable Transportation.

To read the full editorial, click here.

If Colorado’s experience is any indication, energy use is expected to spike with the recent legalization of recreational marijuana in California, much as it did when data centers sprang up throughout the state.

For example, just two years after Colorado legalized recreational marijuana in 2012, grow houses consumed about 2 percent of the power supply in Denver alone.

In anticipation of this new demand, a team of researchers from the Western Cooling Efficiency Center at UC Davis lab-tested equipment designed to reduce the energy demand of this rising new industry. Their results are published in an online case study.

For the full press release, click here.

A team of UC Davis students are tackling the California drought through innovative housing design with their entry for the U.S. Department of Energy’s 2017 Solar Decathlon.

The design focuses on cutting typical residential water use in half while maintaining the same level of comfort at an affordable price.

Held every two years, the Solar Decathlon challenges collegiate teams to design, build, and operate solar-powered houses that are cost-effective, energy-efficient, and attractive. National teams will compete in Denver, Colorado in October 2017. The winning team best blends affordability, consumer appeal, and design excellence with optimal energy production and maximum efficiency.

Design plans are due to the competition this month, with construction scheduled to begin in January on a field beside the UC Davis West Village community.

Read the press release here.
UC Davis Solar Decathlon 2017 Facebook.
UC Davis Solar Decathlon 2017 Website.

From November 29-December 1, 2016 six individuals from UC Davis (Paul Dodd, Ben Finkelor, Siva Gunda, Frank Loge, Alan Meier, and Mark Modera) participated in a collaborative workshop at Casa de la Universidad de California in Mexico City to help accelerate the transition to energy efficient buildings and cities in Mexico.

Participating Institutions from California:

• UC Berkeley
• UC Davis
• UC Irvine
• Lawrence Berkeley National Lab

Participating Institutions from Mexico:

• Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México-School of Engineering
• Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México-Institute for Renewable Energy
• Tecnológico Nacional de México
• Tec de Monterrey (Campus Jalisco and Campus Monterrey)
• Mario Molina Center
• National Institute for Electricity and Clean Energy
• National Commission for Efficient Use of Energy
• Association for Norms and Certifications

Highlights of this event include:

• The early formation of over half a dozen high impact collaborative research projects, designed to accelerate progress towards energy efficient buildings and cities in Mexico.
• A collective recognition of both the strategic importance of this work, and of the remarkable combination of talent and institutional commitment prepared to meet it.
• Participation by Commissioner Andrew McAllister (California Energy Commission); David Phillips, Associate VP for Energy and Sustainability at the University of California, Office of the President and Odón de Buen, Director General of the National Commission for the Efficient Use of Energy (CONUEE).
• A key note presentation by the visionary scientist Amory Lovins, Chairman and Chief Scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute.

For more information on the UC-Mexico Initiative, please click here.

The EGG offers M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Energy Systems. Students will take relevant coursework from across the UC Davis campus and undertake interdisciplinary research to address pressing environmental, economic, policy, and social challenges related to energy production and consumption facing California, the U.S., and the world. EGG is housed within the Energy Efficiency Center, which includes research centers, programs, and partnerships where students conduct research.

To learn all about the Energy Graduate Group, click here.

The UC Davis Energy Efficiency Center (EEC) and former Senior Policy Fellow Nancy Skinner organized three workshops between April and August 2016 on key energy topics. A variety of stakeholders participated in these workshops bringing valuable insights and stimulating energizing discussions. Summaries of these workshops are now available on here.