
Lundi 2 juin de 10h30 à 12h30, nous avons le plaisir d’accueillir Therese Peffer de l’Université de Californie à Berkeley et Miriam Aczel de l’Université des Nations-Unies à Richmond Hill au laboratoire EVS, pour un séminaire exceptionnel à l’occasion de leur venue en France. Elles présenteront leurs travaux sur les expériences de transition énergétique fondées sur les communautés en Californie.
Le séminaire aura lieu à Lyon sur le site Chevreul en salle 604, et à distance
( https://zoom.us/j/98993150019 )
1. Oakland EcoBlock: a community-based sustainability retrofit
Therese PEFFER, UC Berkeley, USA
The Oakland EcoBlock is an urban decarbonization and resilience pilot project to radically retrofit an underserved neighborhood in Oakland, California. Primarily funded by the California Energy Commission as one of four Advanced Energy Community implementation projects, EcoBlock tests strategies to transform an existing block of older residential and commercial units with shared energy- and water-efficient technologies. This UC Berkeley-led project aims to evaluate the integrated design and development process and accelerate the adoption of urban, block-scale retrofits at pace and at scale, with community engagement being a key aspect of the project.
2. Reimagining Resilience: Lessons from California’s Advanced Energy Communities
Miriam ACZEL, United-Nations University, Canada
The California Energy Commission’s Advanced Energy Communities (AEC) initiative explores the potential of decentralized energy through microgrid pilots in diverse communities across the state. This presentation draws on insights from 12 AEC projects funded through the Commission’s EPIC program, examining how microgrids (combining renewable energy, battery storage, and smart energy management) can provide cleaner, more resilient, community-driven alternatives to centralized power systems. We highlight both the potential and the real-world challenges these projects face, including regulatory barriers, financing constraints, and data access limitations. Key lessons include the importance of meaningful community engagement, flexible project design, and clear, inclusive communication in enabling just, scalable energy transitions.
Therese Peffer, PhD, is a project manager and researcher at the California Institute for Energy and Environment (CIEE) within the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS) at the University of California, Berkeley. Therese manages and conducts research in smart
building technologies, building-to-grid, demand response, and smart grid research projects with the objective of creating comfortable and energy efficient livable spaces. She serves as an Associate Director for CIEE and for the CITRIS Climate initiative and is the co-Chair of the annual Behavior Energy and Climate Change conference. She is currently managing the Energy Commission funded EcoBlock and large commercial decarbonization projects, and supporting Frontier Energy in an SDG&E-funded project to train contractors to bid, install and maintain high quality HVAC system in homes.
Miriam Aczel, PhD, is Researcher, Sustainability Transition and Justice at the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH), Richmond Hill, Canada. Miriam has a BA in Geography and Earth Sciences (McGill University), an MSc in Environmental Technology (Imperial College London), and a Ph.D. in Environmental Policy (Imperial College London). She was a President’s Ph.D. Scholar (2016-2021) researching the environmental and community impacts of ‘fracking’ in the UK, USA, France, China, and Algeria, and received the Outstanding Student Achievement Award (2017). Miriam was the inaugural McQuown Postdoctoral Scholar at the California Institute for Energy and Environment (CIEE) at the University of California, Berkeley.









