#038 Mary Ann Piette – Associate Lab Director for Energy Technologies, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Update: 2024-03-01

Description

What are the key strategies for reducing energy usage and decarbonizing buildings? What role do grid-interactive buildings play in the broader energy landscape? How can we use emerging technologies and methodologies, such as digital twins and artificial intelligence, to improve building operations and energy management? Mary Ann Piette, Associate Lab Director for Energy Technologies at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), answered these and many other interesting questions on my podcast.

Mary Ann holds a Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from UC Berkeley and a Licentiate in Building Services Engineering from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden.

Mary Ann oversees research at LBNL focused on decarbonization. She manages 700 staff and affiliates, including 120 principal investigators, working on diverse technology R&D programs spanning energy efficiency, grid integration, hydrogen, storage, and renewables.

Mary Ann recently received a Lifetime Achievement Award for energy-efficient and grid-interactive buildings research. She has written over 100 peer-reviewed publications She’s a recipient of two R&D 100 awards for tools evaluating energy efficiency strategies. Mary Ann's global research experience includes work in Australia and Sweden, and she is a founding Board member of the OpenADR Alliance.

Listen to Mary Ann’s insights in your favorite podcast app.

In this episode:

Introduction (01:24 )

Inspiration behind pursuing mechanical engineering (2:47 )

Learning and working in Sweden (4:00 )

Energy information systems & commissioning (5:45 )

Automating demand response (7:52 )

Role of facility managers in energy efficiency (10:00 )

Launch of the Grid-Interactive Efficient Buildings Roadmap (12:38 )

Collaborative effort in buildings (19:30 )

Fines and penalties (21:30 )

Materials to learn about reducing carbon footprint (23:23 )