Research Overture

This series of talks focuses on new research topics being developed at Future Cities Lab (FCL) Global. Each seminar is an opportunity for the team leading the research to articulate their aims, aspirations, challenges and apprehensions. It is also an occasion for participants to help shape the research through dialogue.

Meeting Link

https://ethz.zoom.us/j/67618216322

Meeting ID: 676 1821 6322

Powering the City

Already today, 80% of global primary energy is consumed in urban areas. Transitioning towards renewable energy systems to power future low-carbon cities is crucial to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and thus limit global warming, as well as increasing liveability in cities. Building Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV) offer on-site renewable energy generation by augmenting or replacing conventional facade materials. Current developments in technology, aesthetics as well as decreasing costs provide the grounds for massive deployment of BIPV also in urban settings, with implications on urban form, construction and energy systems.

This work aims to develop a holistic and multi-scale modelling approach for assessing large scale deployment of BIPV in urban contexts under different climatic and socio-economic conditions. One of the central challenges of modelling urban energy systems is the correct estimation of people’s movements and activities. The growing availability of large-scale data on human activity can provide new insights into the spatiotemporal distribution of people and their activities within cities, which is important not only for urban planning but also for the design and operation of efficient energy systems.

Presenters

Prof. Dr. Arno Schlüter

Principal Investigator & Chair of Architecture and Building Systems, ETH Zürich

Prof. Dr. Markus Schläpfer

Principal Investigator & Asst. Prof. (Adj.), School of Computer Science and Engineering, NTU

Research Overture 2 | Powering the City