Urban areas account for roughly three-quarters of global carbon emissions, making local governments key players in the fight against climate change. However, few studies have looked at the best municipal pathways to net zero.

WISE researcher Amelia Clarke and her collaborators set out to address that gap. After reviewing academic research, government documents, and a global database of municipal carbon emissions, they validated their findings through case studies of eight municipalities…

Right now, energy generators sell their electricity to grid operators in a competitive energy market. Grid operators also oversee a parallel “demand response” procurement program, where big energy consumers like steel plants and pulp and paper mills offer to curb their electricity use during peak time — for a price 

This can take a lot of pressure off the electricity grid. It also saves money by reducing the need for the most expensive forms of electricity generation. But according to WISE…

Today, buildings account for nearly a third of global energy consumption. Net-zero energy structures aim to decarbonize the sector by generating as much electricity on site as they use each year. But what happens when their actual energy consumption is initially higher than intended?

In the case of a 100,000-square-foot office building recently constructed in Waterloo, Ontario, closing that performance gap required a complex process of optimizing the HVAC systems. WISE researchers were there…

Socio-political factors can make or break the large-scale deployment of virtually any new technology. Energy storage (e.g., batteries, pumped hydro, and compressed air) is one such technology, requiring broad social acceptance if it is to play an essential role for a sustainable energy transition.

So how are those factors affecting energy storage deployment in China — the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter? Because Chinese media outlets typically reflect government positions and further…

Flying cars are no longer reserved for sci-fi novels, with groups like Boeing, Toyota and NASA working to move electric vehicles into the skies. One of the key challenges is ensuring the power batteries in these airborne automobiles don’t overheat during takeoff and landing, when discharge rates peak.

Flat heat pipe (FHP) technology offers a promising solution. Thanks to its high heat conductivity and large surface area, it can effectively dissipate the heat from battery packs and ensure…

Transformers are a crucial — and expensive — part of wind farm infrastructure, boosting the low-voltage output from turbine generators to the higher voltage required by the grid. But too often, they fail prematurely. 

That’s because standard transformers aren’t designed to handle spikes in high-frequency energy that are common in wind farms, where vacuum circuit breakers and switching devices often create transient voltages. As a result, they can break down the transformer’s insulation,…

Today, new technologies are emerging that use electricity to produce low-carbon ammonia — a versatile commodity that can be sold locally as fertilizer, traded as an export good or used to temporarily store electricity when supply exceeds demand.  

It’s an enticing idea for energy producers, who often sell their excess electricity to neighbouring markets at a significant loss. But do the numbers add up? To find out, WISE researcher XiaoYu Wu and his colleagues carried out…

As the number of offshore wind farms around the world grows, so do efforts to make them more cost-effective and efficient. One way to do that is to avoid oversizing the power electronic convertors that transform the variable-frequency electricity produced by the turbines into a fixed frequency suitable for the grid. 

In series-connected, single-string DC transmission systems — the most efficient way to transmit the electricity from distant turbines — operation of each convertor is influenced…

Energy storage systems like batteries, supercapacitors and flywheels play an important role in the world of renewables. When the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing, these devices ensure customers have reliable power.

This has sparked interest in privately owned energy storage hubs that could sell power to customers as they need it. To find out how this might play out in the marketplace, WISE researcher Magdy Salama and his colleagues applied game theory, a method that models…