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An Article by Joe Battikh, a WISE member and senior sustainability and government affairs expert with over 20 years of international experience in the private sector. He is a visiting scholar at the American University of Sharjah - UAE and is also completing a Ph.D. at the University of Waterloo - Canada, in sustainability management.
How climate change can create jobs in the MENA region
In the past weeks, the world has witnessed disastrous extreme weather events that have cost the lives of thousands of people and billions of dollars in damages (deadly floods in Asia - China and India - and Europe – Belgium and Germany. And deadly heatwaves in British Columbia, Canada). Scientists are linking these extreme weather events to our changing climate, but can we react to climate change as an opportunity for this region...
An article by Bridget Reed Morawski
Geothermal energy takes advantage of the heat under your feet in order to charge your devices and keep your home toasty in colder months. But given the relative lack of attention the energy source receives compared to other generation resources, let's examine the basics. Geothermal power generation is a method of producing electricity. By tapping into the inner Earth, we can leverage the planet's thermal energy to spin a turbine generator with steam...
An article by Prof. Nathwani and his colleagues
Published in the Elsevier (Journal)
The integration of electric vehicles (EVs) with the energy grid has become an important area of research due to the increasing EV penetration in today’s transportation systems. Under appropriate management of EV charging and discharging, the grid can currently satisfy the energy requirements of a considerable number of EVs. Furthermore, EVs can help enhance the reliability and stability of the energy grid through ancillary services such as energy storage.
This paper proposes the EV routing…
Michael Fowler and Xiao-Yu Wu
When you burn fossil fuels, the by-products are greenhouse gases and particulates. When you burn hydrogen, the by-product is water.
This versatile gas can serve as fuel for transportation and heating, as a way to store energy, and as a feedstock for many products such as ammonia and methanol. It’s easy to transport via pipelines, trucks or tankers, and if you generate hydrogen using renewable energy, it can even be net-zero.
But how do you shift from fossil fuels to this greener alternative? WISE…
Kaitlyn O’Sullivan, Emily Terpstra, Emma Grindall, and Anastasiya Mihaylova
Fourth-Year Project Group from Geological Engineering on Geothermal Greenhouse Design in the North
Graduated in 2021 from Geological Engineering at Waterloo
This University of Waterloo Fourth Year Design Project was completed in April 2021, and presented at the second Canadian Geothermal Students Days Conference in June 2021. The goal of this Conference is to provide a platform for students, (undergraduate to PhD level) to share their research concerning geothermal topics. This year’s theme was Geothermal Use in Northern Communities. 
Project Authors:
Kaitlyn O'Sullivan graduated from the University of Waterloo in 2021 with a specialization in…
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This is a re-post from my LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/enough-sun-power-dubai-joe-y-battikh/
Earlier this month in Dubai, I was at the Dubai and Abu Dhabi Young Professionals in Energy (YPE) speaker series event, where one of the members presented Solar Power in Dubai. During the discussion I thought to myself, is there enough sun to power Dubai?
You would think with all the sun the UAE gets, the answer would be simple, but in fact it’s not and these are three key…
An article by Prof. Jatin Nathwani and Colleagues
Published in the Energies (Journal)
The original article can be found here.
In the presence of a global pandemic (COVID-19), the relentless pressure on global decision-makers is to ensure a balancing of health (reduce mortality impacts), economic goals (income for livelihood sustenance), and environmental sustainability (stabilize GHG emissions long term). The global energy supply system is a dominant contributor to the GHG burden and deeply embedded in the economy with its current share of 85%, use of fossil fuels has remained…
Toronto Star op by Prof. Jatin Nathwani
Demand-response options have proven to be among the lowest cost ways to meet our peak electricity needs. Turning down power at key moments is much more cost-effective then building fossil-fuel power plants and costly transmission lines to meet short-term requirements.
Prof. Nathwani is a Fellow at the Balsillie School of International Affairs (BSIA). He is the research cluster lead ‘STEM 4 Global Resilience'. He is the Founding Executive Director of the Waterloo Insitute for…
Blog by Ambika Opal (Manager, Global Programs and Initiatives)
Higher education institutions such as the University of Waterloo are filled with bright students learning skills to shape the world, researchers pushing the boundaries of current knowledge systems, and partnerships that catalyze collaboration and impact. This mix is a perfect ecosystem for developing knowledge and actions that promote positive social and environmental change.
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are 17 targets with 169 metrics that provide a framework for…
Robert Gracie and Maurice Dusseault
Enhanced geothermal systems (EGSs) take advantage of heat deep beneath the Earth’s surface, forcing water through an engineered set of fractures at high pressure. The resulting steam can then be used to generate electricity or to heat buildings. However, this complex process is vulnerable to short-circuiting— a positive feedback loop in which the thermal contraction of cooled regions of the reservoir leads to increased fluid flow through these regions and diversion of fluid away from…
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