On Thursday, January 26th, York University’s Sustainable Energy Initiative in collaboration with Ryerson’s Centre for Urban Energy kicked off the new year with a joint seminar series event titled, “Smart Grid Solutions for Sustainable Buildings: Advances in renewable energy within the context of buildings.” This event took place at Heaslip House (Ryerson) , from 8:30am-12noon and brought together a number of key experts and inspiring speakers around the topic of smart grid solutions for buildings. The line-up included Bala Venkatesh (Academic Director, CUE), Jose Etcheverry (FES Faculty and SEI Co-Chair), Tom Rand (Cleantech Lead Advisor at MaRS and author of “Kick the Fossil Fuel Habit”), Russell Richman (Assistant Professor, Ryerson-Faculty of Engineering and Architectural Science), Farid Bensebaa (Project Leader at National Research Council of Canada & York-FES Adjunct professor), Rosa Fernandez (Lecturer, Spain National Distance Education University) & keynote Ursula Eicker (Professor, Stuttgart University of Applied Sciences).
Peter Love (Ontario’s former Chief Conservation Officer) moderated the event in his unique role as both a Fellow with Ryerson’s Centre for Urban Energy and Adjunct Professor with York’s Sustainable Energy Initiative. Highlights from the event included an inspiring message from Tom Rand on his personal journey to create Canada’s greenest Hostel “Planet Traveller” (www.theplanettraveler.com), a visual comparison of the smart grid to a plate of spaghetti, explanation of cutting solar technologies such as gradient nano-dispersion film, Europe’s 2020 strategy plan (20/20/20 for 2020) & Germany’s ambitious national energy goals for 2050, including virtual heating plants. The event was another great success at continuing the conversation of how sustainable energy solutions can be integrated into government policies to create more sustainable buildings and cities.
