Latest Reports

The Energy Innovation Center (EIC) at the University of Wyoming—designed for the UW School of Energy Resources (SER), the Enhanced Oil Recovery Institute (EORI), and the Institute’s nine centers of excellence—focuses on such critical issues as enhanced oil recovery, carbon management, and advanced coal technology. 

An evidence-based approach to designing and analyzing research laboratories—one that focuses on practical and interrelated reductions in energy use—offers long-term cost benefits that trump popular but often-underperforming symbolic gestures. Traditional thinking suggests that sustainable construction of research labs, which are among the most energy-intensive facilities in the world, costs many times more than the non-green alternative. Not so, say the designers at Payette, a Boston architectural firm.

The Sir Samuel Griffith Centre at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia, is the embodiment of a living laboratory. The project, funded through the Australian government’s Education Investment Fund, delivers the world’s first large-scale, zero-emission research and teaching facility that utilizes solar power and energy storage as hydrogen.

Institutions that educate medical professionals are building an increasing number of simulation centers in response to the need for more hands-on, interdisciplinary, real-life training scenarios. Although these facilities can generate revenue, the expense of the equipment and related costs make it difficult to be profitable. But, with the use of creative design strategies, institutions can improve utilization and generate income.

The Wisconsin Energy Institute (WEI), at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, brings together researchers from multiple disciplines to collaborate on solving the world’s energy needs. Occupied in January 2013, the five-story, 102,000-gsf building is designed to flex and adapt to evolving directions in clean-energy research.