A research consortium led by Pennsylvania State University has secured up to $129 million in federal funding to develop an energy innovation hub at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. The group garnered the highly competitive grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. Three other federal agencies contributed about $7 million, and Pennsylvania kicked in $30 million. Over the next five years, the federal grant will fund research into energy-efficient building designs and efforts to cut pollution in the construction, maintenance, and management of buildings, with a particular emphasis on retrofitting older buildings. “It’s really a technological game changer,” says Henry C. Foley, PhD, Penn State’s vice president for research and dean of the graduate school, who will lead a team that includes researchers from Princeton, Rutgers, the University of Pennsylvania, Drexel, and other institutions.

The Navy Yard “is perfect as a test bed,” adds John Grady, executive vice president of the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp., which manages the Navy Yard for the City of Philadelphia. The Navy Yard’s inventory of 200 buildings provides a complete and diverse set of “lab rats,” including a mixture of old and new factories, offices, warehouses, and research facilities. Eventually, residences will be added to the mix. The Navy Yard also has its own unregulated power grid, enabling researchers to experiment on the relationship between buildings and the power grid without affecting the city’s power system. Because buildings account for nearly 40% of U.S. energy consumption and carbon emissions, research from the project could lead to reduced energy use, less pollution, and more jobs in the building-efficiency industry, according to officials.

Source: The Philadelphia Inquirer

Posted September 1st, 2010 under Tech Transfer

Write a comment