Penn Institute for Urban Research : Energy Initiatives

Electricity Literacy Survey and Educational Campaign

Less than 20% percent of Penn students surveyed could pass the Penn IUR Electricity Literacy Survey. Can you beat that? To take the survey click here.

Designed and administered by Ian MacClean ’14 as a student in the Penn IUR Undergraduate Urban Research Colloquium in Spring 2012, the survey provided baseline data on how much Penn students know about electricity.

This effort aligns well with Penn’s Climate Action Plan with its goal to reduce campus electricity consumptions by 5 percent from the 2007 baseline in fiscal year 2010, and by 17 percent from the 2007 baseline by 2014. Visit Penn Green Campus Partnership to find out more. Penn IUR will be administering the survey at regular intervals to see if performance improves.

- Ian Maclean and Karen Aquino at the Penn Green Fest.

Energy Smart Communities Initiative of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation

As part of the Energy Smart Communities Initiative launched by US President Obama and Japanese Minister Kan in November of 2010, focused on the smart transport, smart buildings, smart grids, smart jobs and low carbon model towns that will help APEC economics meet their goal of reducing energy efficiency by 45% by 2035 from 2005 levels, Penn IUR, in partnership with the Taiwan Institute for Economic Research, has created the ESCI- Knowledge Sharing Platform, an exciting repository of best practices, research and development, demonstration projects, and metrics.

To see the Smart Grid section of the ESCI-KSP click here.

GPIC-Energy Efficient Buildings Hub

As a member of the Greater Philadelphia Innovation Cluster for Energy Efficient Buildings (GPIC), a Department of Energy-funded “energy innovation hub," involving 22 partners drawn from the public and private sectors and academia, that aims to reduce energy use by 20% by 2020 in the US commercial building sector through advanced energy retrofits, Penn is working with the “Policy, Markets and Behavior” team to develop its knowledge platform to help translate research into market-transforming narratives.