Planning Grant: Engineering Research Center for Green and Climate Resilient Built Environments (Green CRiB)

拟议的绿色和气候弹性建筑环境（绿色CRiB）ERC的愿景是通过提高室内温度稳定性来提高我们社会的气候弹性，作为显着提高被动生存能力，环境正义的一种手段，并提供一条加速能源系统脱碳的途径。绿色CRiBs ERC规划拨款活动将重点关注透明外壳材料方面的尖端、可持续、基于工程的创新，并启用智能制造技术，这些技术将改变建筑环境中自然和人工光、热和能源的管理方式。窗户和透明外壳技术利用超级绝缘材料和新型光管理模式的创新，将大大减少建筑物和农业温室对主动冷却/加热的总体需求，同时最大限度地为人类生活和经济活动（包括食品生产）提供安全温度。绿色CRiB被视为通过节能和电网保护应对气候变化和环境公平的重要战略，同时促进价值0.42万亿美元的玻璃/窗户行业及其服务的多个行业的创新，并培训下一代多元化，融合和创新的工程师来解决复杂的社会问题。在ERC中，我们的目标是针对室外温度变化显著提高室内温度稳定性，这将导致剩余负荷减少，这对电网脱碳至关重要，使用一种全新的方法，该方法基于建筑环境水平上的热、光和能量的动态管理。 在专业知识，性别，种族，地理位置和职业阶段方面的多元化ERC团队将形成一个综合的研究，创新，学习和指导环境，广泛参与，以产生一个高度多样化的聚合思想家和问题解决者群体，反映我们社会的日益多样化。将通过使能技术、基础研究、智能制造创新和利益相关者的参与，寻求和实现对安全、气候适应力、环境公平和正义、减少温室气体排放和电网脱碳的系统层面影响。该规划赠款的智力成果是：i）建立多功能和动态透明外壳技术及其创新如何影响气候适应力，能源公平和电网脱碳之间的联系，ii）确定系统级和技术级测试平台（住宅和商业建筑，温室农业等）。这将最大限度地提高系统级效益和社会影响，iii）绘制一条发展使能技术的道路，使热和光管理性能远远超过当前最先进的水平，以适应系统级需求，iv）确定气凝胶隔热窗，可逆电沉积基本领域的宏电子器件，最佳植物生长和人类舒适度所需的光能调制，玻璃上的能量收集和存储，以及v）改善玻璃和其他外壳上的先进技术的可持续、低成本和大规模制造。将与利益相关者一起确定主要测试平台的系统级评估，以指导研究，着眼于最大限度地降低成本，最大限度地提高接受度，采用率和社会影响。该绿色CRiBs规划活动还将寻求确定尽可能广泛的利益相关者社区，并促进与系统，技术和基础知识相关的不同学科的融合。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

The vision of the proposed ERC for Green and Climate Resilient Built Environments (Green CRiBs) is to enhance the climate-resilience of our society by improving indoor temperature stability as a means of dramatically increasing passive survivability, environmental justice, and providing a pathway to accelerate energy system decarbonization. The Green CRiBs ERC planning grant activities will focus on identifying cutting-edge, sustainable, engineering-based innovations in transparent envelope materials and enabling smart manufacturing technologies that will transform how natural and artificial light, heat and energy are managed in the built environment. Window and transparent envelope technologies leveraging innovations in super-insulating materials and novel light management paradigms will enable dramatic reduction of the overall need for active cooling/heating in buildings and agricultural greenhouses, while maximizing access to safe temperatures for both human living and economic activity, including food production. Green CRiBs is envisioned as an essential strategy for addressing climate change and environmental equity through energy savings and grid protection, while catalyzing innovation in the $0.42 trillion glass/window industry and multiple sectors it serves, and training the next generation of diverse, convergence- and innovation-minded engineers to solve complex societal problems.In this ERC, we aim to dramatically improve indoor temperature stabilization against outdoor temperature variations, which will lead to residual load reductions essential for grid decarbonization using an entirely new approach predicated on dynamical management of heat, light and energy at the level of the built environment. A diverse ERC team in terms of expertise, gender, race, geographic location, and career stage will be formed to establish an integrated research, innovation, learning, and mentoring environment with broad participation to produce a highly diverse group of convergent thinkers and problem solvers that reflect the increasing diversity of our society. System-level implications on safety, climate resilience, environmental equity and justice, reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and grid decarbonization will be sought and enabled through enabling technologies, fundamental research, smart manufacturing innovations and stakeholder engagement. Intellectual merit outcomes of this planning grant are to: i) establish linkages between how multi-functional and dynamic transparent envelope technologies and innovations therein will impact climate resilience, energy equity, and grid decarbonization, ii) identify system-level and technology-level testbeds (residential and commercial buildings, greenhouse agriculture, etc.) that will maximize system-level benefits and societal impacts, iii) chart a path towards developing enabling technologies that advance thermal and light management properties well beyond the current state-of-the-art to become responsive to system-level needs, iv) identify critical pathways for advancement of aerogel thermal insulating windows, macroelectronic devices in fundamental areas of reversible electrodeposition, light energy modulation required for optimal plant growth and human comfort, on-glass energy harvesting and storage, and v) improve sustainable, low-cost and large scale manufacturing of advanced technologies on glass and other envelopes. System-level evaluations in primary testbeds in conjunction with stakeholders will be identified to guide research with an eye on minimizing cost and maximizing acceptance, adoption and societal impact. The Green CRiBs planning activities will also seek to identify the broadest possible stakeholder community and foster convergence of diverse disciplines related to systems, technologies and fundamental knowledge.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.