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Metro21: Smart Cities Institute  ›  Projects  ›  Energy

Energy

Climate challenges are some of the most pressing issues of our time, and achieving energy efficiency in our transportation systems, buildings, and energy systems is essential. Net zero energy exists when the amount of energy provided by renewable-energy sources is equal or equivalent to the amount of energy used. Utilizing cutting edge technology developed at CMU such as digital twins for buildings and transportation, Metro21 projects play a critical role in this transition by seeking solutions on a local level, in part by taking existing data and putting it to work in collaboration with our deployment partners. 

Active Projects

Deploying Charging Infrastructure to Catalyze Market Adoption of Electric Vehicles

The team proposes to develop advanced simulation and optimization tools at the intersection of grid and transportation systems to help state and local agencies and utilities better understand how public electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) deployment (i.e., number and placement of EVSE affects EVSE access and electric vehicle (EV) adoption and in turn grid reliability, travel time and cost, mobility energy productivity, distributional equity, air quality, and health across communities.

Center of Excellence on New Mobility and Automated Vehicles

The Federal Highway Administration — an agency within the U.S. Department of Transportation — announced Tuesday it has awarded a five-year, $7.5 million grant to establish the Center of Excellence on New Mobility and Automated Vehicles. The award will support research on the impacts of new mobility technologies and highly automated vehicles on the evolving transportation system when deployed at scale.

Enabling and Sustaining Connected Communities Rooted in Solving Societal Challenges

With funding from the National Science Foundation, Metro21: Smart Cities Institute hosted an in-person workshop and a series of pre-workshop virtual listening sessions designed to elicit feedback and suggestions from experts in academia, government, nonprofits, civic organizations, and industry to identify solutions to the significant technical, policy, and socioeconomic challenges to integration and scaling of connected communities technologies.

More Efficient Transport of K-12 Students through Centralized Planning

In this other sponsored project, local stakeholders will bring together faculty experienced in the development of transportation models with local government officials, school district leadership and other stakeholders to advise on transportation planning for K-12 students in Allegheny County.

Holistic and Energy-efficient Rural County Mobility Platform (RAMP)

Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, led by an interdisciplinary team including Metro21, and partnering with Waynesburg University & Greene County, the team aims to develop a testbed for an innovative mobility platform that can be replicated across the United States. The goal is to improve mobility in rural Southwestern Pennsylvania, with the potential to advance the fundamental knowledge of how energy-efficient, affordable mobility services can work in rural America, enabling them to be systematically planned, operated, and monitored, inherently merged with system-level modeling.

Zero Emissions Curbside Management Model to Benefit Businesses and Environment

The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded a 3-year $3.8 million grant to advance zero emissions delivery, study curb use in business districts and implement technologies and policies that accelerate electric vehicle (EV) adoption by commercial fleets. Pittsburgh, Los Angeles and Santa Monica were the only three cities awarded the inaugural grant to conduct research and create models that other cities can use.

Completed Projects

Monitoring of Energy and Infrastructure Systems for the Hazelwood Green Site

The team is assisting the Almono development in achieving energy savings of 50 percent.

Artificial Light Survey of Nighttime Pittsburgh

The goal of this project is to improve the quality of life for city residents, we are undertaking a light survey of the city at resolutions finer than can be done by open satellite surveys. Light pollution, artificial light at night, is responsible for producing an unhealthy environment for plants and animals and impacts human health and safety. It wastes money and, with the introduction of LEDs, is rapidly getting worse.

Evaluating Benefits of Coupling Solar Energy and Electric Vehicles in City of Pittsburgh

The goal of this research project is to evaluate the opportunity for sustainability and economic improvements in City of Pittsburgh operations through municipal plug-in electric vehicles, downtown public charging stations and distributed solar energy.

LED Street Light Research Project Part II: New Findings

The City of Pittsburgh and the Remaking Cities Institute (RCI) began a project in 2011 to test the effects of LED light quality. Since 2012, the City has installed more than 4,500 LED lights around Pittsburgh and the RCI team published a report of findings in July 2016.

Reducing Congestion and Emissions with an Airbnb for Intelligent Curbs

This project creates a proof of concept for an “Airbnb” for intelligent curbs. The concept will evaluate pathways to maximize efficiency, minimize congestion, and enhance sustainability for urban networks.

Pennsylvania’s Grid-Scale Solar Future: Siting, Evaluating, and Elevating Southwestern Pennsylvania’s Solar Impact

Metro21 Distinguished Fellow Rick Stafford’s research will allow Pennsylvania to drastically increase environmentally-friendly energy production with the least possible negative impact on communities.

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