The nation’s research universities are at the vanguard of experimenting with how to use energy more efficiently in order to reduce their carbon footprint and save money. Because campuses are in essence small cities, with their own buildings, hospitals, transportation systems, electrical power generation and transmission facilities, and populations in the tens of thousands, they are ideal societal test beds for the green infrastructure revolution. Extending their mission as land-grant institutions, they can transfer best practices to society at large, speeding the ability of California and the nation to improve energy efficiency and meet carbon-reduction goals.
UC San Diego and UC Irvine have strong records in energy and water efficiency, reducing waste streams, and utilizing renewable energy sources. Calit2 is integrating the advances made by the facilities operators and planners with faculty, staff and student research. In addition, the institute is exploring the use of novel materials, new technologies and data-driven control systems to lower energy costs and reduce unnecessary use of water and other constrained resources. Calit2 will focus on three themes: reducing the energy intensity of campus IT and telecom equipment; improving energy efficiency through smart buildings and intelligent transportation; and reducing travel by using virtual/physical collaboration systems. Lessons learned in the institute’s two-campuses experimental urban setting can help drive society’s move to a lower-carbon economy.
Much of the energy requirement for research-intensive campus buildings goes to power and cool computers, so Calit2 will support projects to reduce the energy requirements of these computational and storage devices. Calit2’s approach will be characterized by exploring the interactions of computer architecture with software and algorithms, so as to accomplish the same computational work with radically less energy. A particular focus will be on sub-components of the Internet, the emerging use of cloud computing and storage by campuses, and the mobile Internet. The institute is also exploring opportunities in DC-powered cyberinfrastructure, as well as zero-carbon renewable energy.
Calit2 is equipping energy-intensive buildings (including Calit2’s headquarters at UC San Diego and UC Irvine, as well as the San Diego Supercomputer Center and computer science buildings on both campuses) with energy sensor nets, to understand the major sub-components of energy demand and to provide a foundation for strategies to reduce energy use. These efforts will be extended to include predictive modeling of buildings with digital control systems, and energy-efficiency software systems deployed across our computational infrastructure.
In the decade ahead Calit2 will continue to expand its efforts in intelligent transportation. Working with the growing fleet of renewable energy vehicles being acquired by both campuses, Calit2 will explore technologies for reducing congestion on San Diego and Orange County freeways, and work with the transportation industry to explore novel approaches to expanding digital technologies in new generations of vehicles. Calit2 will also work with regional electrical utilities in Southern California and across the state to drive innovations into the emerging ‘smart’ electric grid, connecting distributed renewable energy sources and energy storage.
Calit2 has already established an international reputation for research on eliminating distance by use of high-resolution video over dedicated fiber-optic networks coupled to scalable visualization systems. The institute will expand its use of shared virtual/physical workspaces to support research projects throughout Calit2, our two campuses, and the UC system more generally. This reduces energy expenditure on travel while increasing the frequency of collaboration.
