Utilities

BC Hydro is the third largest electric utility in Canada and serves over 94 per cent of BC’s population. This alliance focuses on achieving joint research, demonstration, showcasing and sustainability technology commercialization goals. Activities include the study of sensing, monitoring and control systems, energy systems, high-performance building envelope and integrated component systems, and fostering energy conservation behaviour and low-carbon communities.

Government

The City of Vancouver is renowned for its innovative programs in sustainability, accessibility and inclusivity. The City and UBC are working together to reduce energy, resource consumption and GHG emissions; demonstrate sustainability leadership; coordinate efforts toward world’s greenest city and leading institution in the world in sustainability; share knowledge and research findings; develop a conservation / sustainability culture; demonstrate best practices and showcase key initiatives

Research Councils & Institutions

The National Research Council (NRC) is the Government of Canada's premier organization for research and development. NRC-IFCI and UBC are collaborating in the areas of fuel cells, hydrogen applications, clean energy research and development, societal awareness activities and training of HQP programs.

The University of British Columbia has forged a formal partnership with Germany’s Fraunhofer, Europe’s largest research institution for applied research, to focus on renewable-energy technologies. The UBC-Fraunhofer MOU establishes a framework for joint projects in areas that include biomass and electrochemical energy conversion, fuel cell and hydrogen technologies and energy efficient building technologies delivered by UBC's Clean Energy Research Centre. As well, the MOU seeks to foster scholarly and student exchanges while increasing links with industry and commercialization opportunities.

FPInnovations works to optimise the forest sector value chain in Canada. They have helped finance and drive policy and standards around forest product use at UBC, supporting the delivery of the world-class biomass R&D facility, housed within North America's first CLT building. A key deliverable of the project was the FPInnovations handbook on CLT techonology.

Powertech, a BC Hydro subsidiary, specializes in clean energy consulting, independent testing and power system solutions. Combining their multidisciplinary, expert staff of engineers, scientists and technologists with our world leading testing facilities, Powertech has been working closely with UBC to help implement signature projects that gives clients from around the globe the ability to assess, test, and demonstrate their energy systems and energy-related technologies at UBC.

Large Enterprises

GE Energy is one of the world’s leading suppliers of power generation and energy delivery technologies. The UBC-Nexterra BRDP demonstrates the world's first application of a GE Jenbacher engine using syngas instead of conventional fossil fuels for cogeneration of heat and power.

Haworth, Inc. is a global leader in the design and manufacturing of office furniture and organic workspaces. This alliance is largely a research partnership with a targeted focus in areas pertaining directly to modular and structural architecture and sustainable environmental design.

Honeywell is a Fortune 100 company that invents and manufactures technologies to address tough challenges linked to global megatrends such as safety, security, and energy. CIRS and Honeywell are on a joint mission to accelerate the adoption of more sustainable building and urban development practices, through the development of improved sensing, monitoring and controls devices, systems, technologies and applications for buildings and distributed energy networks. Honeywell is also currently spear-heading the Smart Energy Systems Project. See more here.

Modern Green Development Co. Ltd.  is one of China’s largest property developers. Together with UBC it has entered into its first North American strategic partnership to advance green building research and development at UBC. With the partnership, UBC and Modern Green will conduct applied research in sustainability policies and processes. The partnership also provides UBC a partner to help test and deploy advanced sustainable building technologies in an effort to provide market-based solutions to global sustainability challenges. For more information see, the UBC Public Affairs website.

Innovative Startups

Nexterra  is a leading developer of biomass gasification systems. UBC and Nexterra are working together to install a biomass combined heat and power (CHP) system at UBC's Vancouver campus. This is the first installation of its kind in North America and follows three years of collaboration between Nexterra and GE's Jenbacher gas engine division. The new CHP system will convert urban wood waste into clean burning, combustible synthetic gas or "syngas" using Nexterra's proprietary gasification and syngas conditioning technologies. The syngas will be directly fired into a GE internal combustion engine to produce 2 MW of electricity. Waste heat will be recovered from the engine to produce 9,000 lbs/hour of low pressure steam. Emissions from the system will be well below local air emissions limits and the system will have a conversion efficiency of more than 65%. For more information see, the UBC Public Affairs website.

Pulse Energy  and UBC are working on developing an intelligent energy management platform that can provide building owners and occupants with accurate and user friendly building energy and resource consumption information. This data can highlight inefficiencies in real time and enable operators to identify and correct the source of the problem, resulting in annual energy savings of up to 25%. This technology will provide Automated Intelligent Troubleshooting which will identify the source of the problem when a building is consuming energy outside of its normal energy use patterns.

Cooledge and UBC are evaluating new luminaries as part of an SDTC program to develop new, innovative technology in Canada. Commercial buildings in Canada are the largest consumers of broad area lighting, which accounts for 10% of that sector’s total energy demand. Unfortunately, an estimated 60% of the energy spent on lighting in commercial buildings is wasted, primarily on illuminating unoccupied areas or areas which already receive enough natural light. Cooledge aims to replace the conventional fluorescent fixtures used for broad area lighting in commercial buildings with cost competitive MicroLED luminaires that are more energy efficient, mercury free and can provide better quality lighting and new design possibilities. The result is a standard 2’x2’ luminaire that, by the end of the process development within the SDTC project, will match the cost and performance of the fluorescent based equivalent and will incorporate simple autonomous controls based on ambient light and occupancy sensing.

UBC spin-off company SunCentral installed the Core Sunlighting System invented by UBC Physics Prof. Lorne Whitehead as part of a $61.8m makeover of the UBC Biological Sciences Complex. Supported by Sustainable Development Technologies Canada, this installation demonstrates how the system collects and channels sunlight deep into the building’s core using automated special mirror arrays that follow the sun’s path throughout the day. The system provides primary or supplemental lighting to three labs and light sensors automatically adjust lighting levels for energy efficient florescent lights at night and on cloudy days. SunCentral is working with BC Hydro to measure energy efficiencies while also optimizing the natural lighting experience for building occupants. SunCentral's Core Sunlighting System was installed on three floors of the west wing of the UBC Biological Sciences Building in the Fall of 2010.