Sustainability

Sustainability must be global or it will not be. Our planet is a physical system that can be studied, just like ecosystems, the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, and the crust. Additionally, all natural resources such as minerals, biomass, water, or fertile soils are included. All of these are rapidly degrading due to human action. 

Science and technology must join forces with human sciences like economics, sociology, law, or politics to change the course of this degradation. We must understand and evaluate the efficiency, sufficiency, and resilience in the social use of all scarce natural resources (not just energy) to avoid collapse due to the nonlinear behavior of many Earth subsystems. Climate change is one of them, but not the only one. Technology and science do not lead to a better world if they are not governed by ethics.

As a Research Institute, and in order to contribute to a true economy that attends to the equality and dignity of all, we specifically study socioeconomic aspects of renewable energies and energy in general, such as energy poverty, employment impact, gender inequality in the sector, or applied pricing policies and their impact on consumers.

Sustainable Mobility

Climate change, depletion and excessive energy dependence on oil, and poor air quality in cities have placed urban mobility in the spotlight. To improve this scenario, priority actions must be aimed at better and more innovative planning of urban mobility and transport in cities, while integrating the proper but large-scale implementation of electric vehicles. This requires the development and implementation of new charging methods, such as conductive and inductive charging, at low power for daily use and high power for occasional use by individual users and professionals in very diverse fields and situations. The ultimate goal is to achieve greater interoperability and avoid redundant and/or underutilized installations. 

The electric vehicle, taking advantage of its V2X possibilities, is an opportunity for the development and implementation of integrated renewable generation and storage systems, which improve the quality and security of the distribution network supply and for new development models based on these new services it provides.

Bioclimatic Architecture and Sustainable Urban Planning

Sustainable architecture combines several technologies to achieve comfort in buildings with minimal fuel costs. Bioclimatic design relies on proper urban planning, a circumstance that makes the topic of particular interest, especially for public administrations. For example, in Zaragoza, developments like "Parque Goya" and "Ecociudad Valdespartera" or the CIRCE Building itself have applied these concepts, and we have monitored whether such energy savings are actually achieved.

Industrial Ecology

Industrial ecology studies the energy and raw material needs of a community and all its potential consumers (from industry to domestic needs) together, so that the material and energy flows that are conventional waste can be revalued in another process. This innovative vision a few years ago, studied for Andorra (Teruel) with the closure of its CT, now forms part of circular economy strategies.