May 6, 2024
Vincent Romanin presents his company’s solution to accelerate building decarbonization.
A small, but loyal group of semiannual CalPlug workshop attendees celebrated Earth Day at CALIT2 in April. They engaged with experts in innovative sustainable technologies.
Morning sessions featured CalPlug research and projects, as well as a presentation from Walter W. Haase, general manager of the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority. In 2008, he took the helm of the multi-utility owned and operated by the Navajo Nation, the largest land-based Native American tribe in the country. In his presentation “Light Up Navajo,” Haase explained his efforts to find avenues to connect the homes of thousands of Navajo families living without electricity.
After a break for lunch, afternoon workshop sessions ranged from autonomous vehicles to computer modeling for climate and Earth processes to window heat pumps to energy efficiency as a carbon-abatement solution.
Workshop attendees engaged with experts in innovative sustainable technologies.
Vince Romanin, CEO and Co-founder of Gradient Comfort, presented his company’s effort to decarbonize HVAC systems. Named one of TIME magazine’s best inventions of 2022, a Fast Company 2022 World Changing Idea, and winner of the 2022 House Beautiful Live Better awards, Gradient’s window heat pump units represent one of the most promising means of accelerating the electrification and decarbonization of buildings.
“Heat pumps are the future of HVAC,” Romanian explained. “But widespread adoption lags in older buildings.” He added that Gradient’s mission is to provide planet positive building comfort.
The CalPlug workshop series was launched in 2011 with the goal to maximize communication of the latest research findings and developments, and to address challenges in plug load efficiency for both residential and commercial buildings.
The following are the eight spring 2024 workshop presentations:
01 Light Up Navajo
Walter W. Haase, Navajo Tribal Utility Authority
02 Thermal Energy Storage
Arnold Shuoyu, CalPlug
03 PLETICS Updates
Katie Gladych, CalPlug
04 SMART IAC updates
Chelsea Choudhary, CALIT2
05 Dynamic Distributed Computing for Autonomous Vehicles in 5G Infrastructure
Marco Levorato, UCI Dept. of Computer Science
06 On the Use of Computer Models for Improved Understanding of Climate and Earth processes
Veronica Berrocal, UCI Dept. of Statistics
07 Window Heat Pumps to Accelerate Building Decarbonization
Vincent Romanin, Grdient
08 Is Energy Efficiency Being Overlooks as a Carbon-Abatement Solution
Wendell Brase, UCI Office of Sustainability
– Shelly Nazarenus
