Berkeley Lab-Mexico Recent Highlights

Two projects awarded to Berkeley Lab and Mexican institutions advancing energy efficiency in buildings in Mexico as part of the call “Collaboration Projects in Energy Efficiency; Cooperation with the University of California” started work this fall. The call, issued last year by the CONACYT-SENER Energy Sustainability Fund (ESF) in a ceremony led by UC President Janet Napolitano and Mexico Secretary of Energy Pedro Joaquin, supports collaborative research aimed at reducing the energy demand of buildings and urban services and transitioning to a low-carbon economy via demonstration projects and comprehensive energy efficiency solutions.

In total, the fund received more than 20 proposals developed by leading Mexican institutions and researchers from Berkeley Lab, UC Davis, UC Berkeley, and UC Irvine. An evaluation committee comprised by independent experts from the U.S. and Mexico reviewed the proposals and selected five projects to be awarded (3 led on the UC side by UC Davis and 2 by Berkeley Lab).  A special ceremony to announce the winning proposals was held at Casa de la Universidad de California in Mexico City last November.

The project “Demonstration buildings based on bioclimatic design in a warm sub-humid climate at the Institute of Renewable Energies (IER)-UNAM”, developed by Berkeley Lab and IER-UNAM, will receive $325,000.00 USD over four years. As part of this project, a building based on bioclimatic design at IER-UNAM (warm sub-humid climate) will be evaluated for thermal comfort, daylighting and effectiveness for low energy cooling systems. Based on the lessons learned from this building, a second building will be designed and simulated. These buildings are going to be demonstrative examples of bioclimatic design in warm sub-humid climate, and within the project, a building design guide for this climate will be published. LBNL will also work closely with the UNAM-IER team in the design, implementation and analysis of the data acquisition in the first building.<

Berkeley Lab also received a $87,500.00 USD award from ESF to work with the National Institute of Electricity and Clean Energies (INEEL) in the project “Energy Observatory for the Mexican Building Sector”. This 3-year project will establish a system for obtaining periodic information necessary for the evaluation of the technical, economic, and environmental impacts of buildings energy efficiency programs in Mexico and will allow the comparison of these impacts between different programs in order to better plan, prioritize, and enhance Mexican energy policy. The development of the data collection system will allow the generation of a national 'Energy Observatory' database hosted, maintained and managed by INEEL.

Photo: Projects awarded to Berkeley Lab and Mexican institutions to support Energy Efficiency in Buildings in Mexico starting work