The University of Waterloo officially opened its Energy Research Centre, a 14,000-square-foot research facility on the ground floor of the Energy Research Centre, which will provides a focal point for energy research groups in the faculty of engineering at Waterloo, including solar thermal research laboratory, energy and pollution modelling, and fuel cell research and development labs.

University of Waterloo professor, Claudio Cañizares, was appointed as the inaugural Hydro One Chair in Power Engineering, a position funded by a $2.5-million agreement signed last year with Hydro One Networks Inc.

Jatin Nathwani, executive director of Waterloo Institute for Sustainable Energy (WISE), had the following to say:

The University of Waterloo has made energy a top strategic priority and through the Waterloo Institute for Sustainable Energy (WISE), we address the full spectrum of sustainable energy R&D, education, partnerships and commercialization. Energy challenges continue to command attention at the national and international levels. It is a reasonable premise that a healthy energy equation requires balance among the energy sources: those we know and those that we have yet to discover.

Funding for the Energy Research Centre came from Canada’s federal government, Ontario’s provincial government, industry and the University of Waterloo. The 43,200-gross-square-foot Energy Research Centre cost $11.4-million to build. Federal and provincial government funding totals $31.3 million for lab equipment and research support.

SOURCE: “University of Waterloo opens world-class Energy Research Centre, appoints top researcher to Hydro One Chair in Power Engineering“, Oct 4, 2010, University of Waterloo
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