News

Buildings constitute a major component of end-use energy. Next generation technologies embedded in “smart” buildings will remain key to a low carbon energy future. This event was a ‘meet-up’ of academic, industry & government experts who came together to share insights & new ideas for our energy future.

The Waterloo Institute for Sustainable Energy and the Canadian Plastics Industry Association co-hosted this 2-day event (June 21 & 22, 2018)

This conference intended to bring together international experts, policy makers, researchers, innovators and entrepreneurs to explore how the advancements in resource recovery technologies and the pursuit of a sustainable economy are changing the way we interact with our world.

The Waterloo Institute for Sustainable Energy (WISE) hosted the Annual Conference for the Tesla Owners Club – Ontario association at the University of Waterloo on May 1st, 2018.

WISE Energy Day 2018 featured three panel sessions that aimed to discuss current and emerging themes in the sustainable energy sector and beyond. Professor Linda Nazar delivered a distinguished Keynote on the topic of '21st Century Promise of Battery Science for a Resilient Future'. 

• Panel 1: Access to Clean Energy for All: Is Innovation the Problem? 
• Panel 2: Getting to a Low Carbon World: Capture or Utilize?
• Panel 3: Block chain in the Energy Sector: Bust or Bonanza?

The Council for Clean & Reliable Energy (CCRE) in partnership with the Waterloo Institute for Sustainable Energy (WISE), a leading innovation centre at the University of Waterloo, hosted its annual Technology Innovation and Policy Forum on Thursday, November 9, 2017. This event brought together technology developers and innovators, leading researchers and entrepreneurs, industry thought leaders, and policymakers to address the convergence of policy development with technology advances.

Event title: Disruptive Innovation Over the Wires - Business Models for Success

The main goal of this event was to shape the pathways of development for emerging disruptive technologies and to understand the impacts of microgrids embedded on a large scale within the existing distribution networks.

This two-day workshop was organized to explore various options for collaboration between University of Waterloo and University of Strathclyde to advance low-carbon energy initiatives.

WISE hosted the first of its kind Geothermal Symposium and featured distinguished speakers and experts in geothermal energy from across the globe. Participants also included innovators from academia, industry, funding and international agencies with student poster presentations.

The purpose of the event was to advance our understanding of the role of geothermal technologies in providing decarbonized energy to Canadian communities, particularly those in remote and cooler climates. The Symposium brought together technology developers and innovators, leading researchers and entrepreneurs, industry thought leaders, and policymakers to help shape a vision of geothermal energy integration into Canada’s energy future.

This invitation-only event spread over 2.5 days, brought together 40+ leading thinkers from research institutions, the private and public sectors, and NGO and finance organizations in order to identify and scope key areas where collaboration and innovation  are needed. An 'Innovation lab' model was utilized as a non-traditional, highly interactive and focused process for participants to work through in order to explore the energy access challenge space. The lab aimed to develop implementable work plans, built on the best practices knowledge, specific expertise, and dependable capacities of participants and other sectoral partners. The AE4H initiative supported the further development of these collaborative projects after the event. 

The purpose of the workshop was to advance our understanding of the role of circular economy and carbon reduction initiatives and to identify opportunities to build fiscal capital through the re-designing of ecosystem services infrastructure while respecting environmental limits. The workshop brought together an executive forum designed to encourage the exchange of ideas that will help create a roadmap to guide the future of waste management and resource recovery (including energy demand reduction) research in Canada.

This workshop was part of an international collaboration between Dalian University in China, The University of Waterloo in Canada, Imperial College London in the UK and the International Academy of Ecology and Life Protection Science in Russia. The collaboration explored strategies for green growth through providing a platform for researchers from the four institutions to share case studies that illustrate widely applicable strategies for furthering economic and environmental stewardship aims simultaneously. The workshop was the second in a series, following a meeting at Dalian University in China in 2015. The event featured presentations and panel discussions on three topics: Business Strategies for Green Growth; Cities, Infrastructure and Planning for Sustainability; and The Circular Economy. Speakers presented from the four institutions involved in the collaboration, as well as from external organizations in Canada.