Dean's Lecture: Alexis Abramson

With the rising threat of climate change, the need to reduce carbon emissions is imperative. Energy consumption in the buildings sector accounts for more than 40% of the total primary energy consumption in the US and the EU, making buildings a critical target for emissions reduction. Even more, global building energy consumption is projected to increase, especially with the rise of developing countries. To achieve climate change mitigation goals, electrification of buildings powered by clean energy sources is critical. Electrification entails replacement of fossil fuels, typically combusted for heating and cooking, with electrically driven heat pumps (even in cold climates) and appliances. Improvements in heat pump technology, cost reductions, and policy drivers are now pushing marketplace adoption for both building renovations and new construction. But can our grid handle the increased load demand for electrification, particularly during the coldest times of the year? Utilities will need to add staggering amounts of new emissions-free power while delicately balancing electricity supply and demand across the grid. We will need mechanisms to better optimize and manage distributed energy resources located at building sites. We will need better technology solutions that enable electricity to be stored during times of overproduction and used during high demand periods. And we will need to integrate better intelligence into buildings to load shift and adjust consumption patterns. Additionally, we will need to consider solutions for the coldest days of the year in the colder climates as grid capacity may not be capable of meeting demand. This presentation will discuss these various challenges and opportunities facing the building sector as we navigate solutions to address and mitigate climate change.

Alexis Abramson is the 13th dean of the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth, where she has been since mid-2019. At Dartmouth, she leads an expansion of the school, putting human-centered engineering at the heart of engineering education, research, and practice. Abramson's research has focused broadly on thermal transport, from designing nanostructured materials to addressing building energy efficiency. Abramson also co-founded Edifice Analytics, a start-up that conducts virtual energy audits and manages building optimization. Prior to joining Dartmouth, she was the Maltz Professor of Energy Innovation at Case Western Reserve University and served as a director of the university’s Great Lakes Energy Institute. During the Obama administration, Abramson held the role of chief scientist and manager of the Emerging Technologies Division at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Building Technologies Program. In 2018, she also served as technical adviser for Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a $1 billion effort launched by Bill Gates to combat human-driven climate change. She received her BS and MS degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Tufts University and her PhD from University of California, Berkeley.