Energy efficiency in commercial buildings

Purpose and goal

The aim of the project was to qualify the project manager Sofia Stensson in the field of energy and demand response in buildings. The project leader was placed half-time at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) in the US, in a research team at their Demand Response Research Center. The network, skills and experience from there she will now bring with her to a new role as RISE focus area leader for Sustainable viable neighborhoods. This is a newly launched strategic focus area at RISE to create interdisciplinary solutions to meet the challenges of society and industry.

Expected results and effects

The project has qualified the project leader, for example through the following activities: -Completed leadership training (UGL-Development of Group and Leaders) -Theoretical and practical training in supervising fellow researchers -Publication of 3 scientific articles, three LBNL reports and one open source tool -Participation and presentation of research results at two conferences -Coordination of research applications (several grants approved) -Methodology developed at LBNL is now used in research projects at RISE -Mentoring of one PhD student

Planned approach and implementation

The project leader was involved in a number of research studies. In one of the more unique studies, the research team developed a data-driven model to calculate the potential of demand response throughout California in 2025. This gave a whole new framework that contributed to increase knowledge and understanding of the potential for utilizing demand response to enable a larger proportion of renewables in the future electricity grid. The project results received great attention in the industry and were also mentioned in a press release from the White House under the Obama administration