Cutting-edge research on zero energy buildings

Concordia-led partnership looks to transform energy management in buildings across Canada

Prof Andreas Athienitis heads the $2M+ initiative, co-funded by NSERC, Hydro-Québec and Mitacs. The program builds on progress achieved under Athienitis’ NSERC Industrial Chair program, with significant contributions from Concordia’s team in modeling and quantifying building energy flexibility. Expected outcomes include novel model predictive control strategies and retrofit measures to reduce peak demand and facilitate renewable energy integration. Read this news article.

Dr. Ouf received 2023-2024 GCS Teaching Excellence Award

On August 28^th, 2024, Dr. Mohamed Ouf was honoured to receive the GCS Teaching Excellence Award for junior faculty members, a testament to his outstanding contributions to teaching in BCEE, GCS link, LinkedIn post. Dr. Ouf also won this year the GCS Research Excellence Award - Tier III for his excellence in both teaching and research.

Dr. Hachem-Vermett published articles on The Hill Time and Le Devoir

From potential to power: how Canada can lead with solar energy legislation - The Hill Times, May 31, 2024, link

Pour un Canada à l’avant-garde de la législation en potentiel énergétique solaire | Le Devoir, June 4, 2024, link

Charting a new energy-efficiency pathway for schools

A news article was published by Canada's National Observer on March 4, 2024. It reported the work by CZEBS's PhD student Navid Morovat on developing and applying MPC (model predictive control) methodology to reduce peak energy demands in a Quebec school. Navid is co-supervised by Dr. Andreas Athienitis of CZEBS, BCEE and Dr. José Candanedo of Université de Sherbrooke. He defended his doctoral thesis on March 6. News link

Young visitors to the solar simulator

A group of young students from the robotic club located in Montreal West Island (www.benjostudio.com) visited the solar simulator lab as an immersion session to learn about energy generation, storage and distribution, October 14, 2022.

CZEBS professor Ted Stathopoulos awarded the Honoris Genius by OIQ

Dr. Stathopoulos was awarded the Honoris Genius for Engineering Research or Education by the Ordre des Ingénieurs du Québec on November 25. The prize was created this year to celebrate the order’s 100th anniversary.  For more information, visit the OIQ announcement page and read this Concordia news article on December 17, 2020.

A CBC news article featured BIPV/T at Concordia's JMSB building and Varennes library

The BIPV/T installation on the facade of JMSB building of Concordia University and the PV & BIPV/T roof on Varennes library were featured in a CBS News article by Emily Chung on June 2, 2021. To view the original CBC news article "Solar windows, shingles and cladding? The building itself is now the solar panel?", please follow this link. 

Conference on Building Energy & Environment (COBEE 2022)

The 5th COBEE conference will be hosted by the CZEBS, Concordia University in Montreal, Canada, 25th-29th July 2022  Chaired Dr. Liangzhu (Leon) Wang, with two co-chairs, Dr. Ge from CZEBS, and Dr. Zhai from University of Colorado Boulder, USA.  Dr. Athienitis, Dr. Stathopoulos, and Dr. Zmeureanu serve as Program Chairs for organizing and chairing different expertise programs.  See more on Concordia news article on COBEE 2022 and Photo slideshow and gallery of COBEE 2022.

IBPSA president Dr. Dru Crawley visited CZEBS

On October 23, 2024. Dr. Leon Wang and Dr. Mohamed Ouf welcomed Dr. Crawley and engaged in discussions on collaborative research topics on urban digital twins, building decarbonization and electrification and climate resilience and weather simulations. Dr. Crawley toured the Solar Simulator - Environmental Chamber Lab and the Building Aerodynamics Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel. He commended the contributions made by our faculty and students to the IBPSA community and expressed strong interest in collaborating with Concordia University on society-wide decarbonization and electrification initiatives. [IBPSA: International Building Performance Simulation Association]

Best Student Paper Award by Andrea Petrucci

Andrea Petrucci received the Best Student Paper Award for his co-authored publication: Petrucci A., Vallianos C., Candanedo J., Delcroix B., Buonomano A., Athienitis A. (2024). "Towards dynamic pricing algorithm for residential buildings: A Model Predictive Control framework for load aggregation", The 3rd International Conference on Energy Transition in the Mediterranean Area (SyNERGY MED 2024), October 21-23, Limassol, Cyprus. See the LinkedIn post for more details.

Roadmap to Resilient, Ultra-Low Energy Built Environment with Deep Integration of Renewables in 2050

The final Canadian Academy of Engineering Roadmap report has been completed. You can download it from here

Athienitis, A. K., Bambara, J., Rosamund, H., Kennedy, C., & Pape-Salmon, A. (2024). Roadmap to Resilient  Ultra-Low-Energy Buildings  with Deep Integration of Renewables (p. 243). The Canadian Academy of Engineering.

The CAE Resilient Built Environment Roadmap project was officially launched in 2019 to develop strategic recommendations for the energy transition of buildings toward net-zero operating emissions.  This project was co-chaired by Andreas Athienitis and Andrew Pape-Salmon. Our Centre for Zero Energy Building Studies (CZEBS) co-organized with CAE at Concordia the planning workshop on March 22, 2019; see EN: Download PDF. FR: Download PDF.  A webinar on October 12, 2021 focused on lessons learned and experiences from existing and ongoing developments in high profile low-carbon and positive energy communities in Canada and Europe, and on informing the CAE Roadmap on current status and future opportunities and challenges. The proceedings is available at Spectrum Research Repositor of Concordia University.

CZEBS invited speaker, Dr. Michele Zinzi, on countering urban overheating with cool materials.

In response to an invitation from CZEBS, Dr. Michele Zinzi presented a webinar entitled "Countering urban overheating with cool materials: solutions and impacts". Dr. Zinzi is a representative of the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development. Dr. Zinzi presented the development and testing of new coating materials for building envelopes and roofs that reflect infrared energy in solar radiation and reduce urban heat island impacts on buildings and communities. [2023-05-08]

Students of two classes visited the Varennes Library

Students of two classes, BLDG 6951 by Dr. Athienitis on Passive solar building designs and BLDG 691 by Dr. Ouf on Occupant centric building design and operation, visited the Varennes Library on March 16, 2024. Read more about this first net-zero institutional building in Quebec in articles below:

• How Varennes Library achieves net-zero energy, and its lessons for future city building - The Globe and Mail and Concordia University News
• Varennes Net-Zero Library - Award of Excellence - Canadian Consulting Engineer
• This net-zero library in Quebec inspires us all - David Suzuki Foundation