Spain
The Catalonia Institute for Energy Research (IREC) is a publicly funded institution created in 2009 based in Barcelona that conducts innovative research over a wide range of disciplines within the science and technology energy field. IREC contributes to sustainable development via development of new technological solutions, promotion of scientific and technological know-how related to clean energy and its efficient use as well transfer of solution and expertise to market actors. Activities include regional, national and international projects as well as direct cooperation with leading industrial partners. The institute also supports the promotion of renewable energy technologies and assists political decision-makers. IREC has participated in more than 60 projects, with a portfolio of more than 7M€, it is founding member of the Catalonia Energy Efficiency Cluster (CEEC) and KIC InnoEnergy. Additionally, IREC published more than 500 peer-reviewed papers, holds more than 30 patents and has supported the creation of 2 spin-off companies.
Head of Thermal Energy and Building Performance Group
Dr. Jaume Salom is the group leader of the Thermal Energy and Building Performance Group. Dr. Salom has a relevant experience leading and participating in international and national research projects, also with the industry, in the field of energy efficiency in buildings and data centres, energy systems integration, simulation of energy systems and the concept of Net Zero Energy Buildings (NZEBs), including more than 60 research documents and edition of several books and reports. He is participating in international networks as the IEA EBC Annex 67 “Energy flexible Buildings”. Now and before joining IREC, as founder in AIGUASOL, Dr. Salom actively promoted the use, development and improvement of energy simulation tools like TRNSYS. His research interests in the last years are centred on the impact and benefits of the energy refurbishment of the building stock, implication of expanding the Net Zero Energy Building concept to districts and cities including the interaction with the electrical and thermal energy infrastructures and management of energy flexibility in buildings to contribute to the energy transition.
Senior Researcher
Joana Ortiz is part of the Energy Efficiency Systems, Buildings and Communities group (ECOS) of the Institute for Energy Research (IREC) since 2011. She works as a researcher in energy efficiency in buildings. She has participated in national and international projects related to refurbishment of buildings, NZEB / nZEB concepts, energy flexibility in buildings, stochastic models of occupancy and environmental comfort of the users (MEDNICE, MARIE, RePuBlicZEB, ECOE, SABINA, Rehab-SALUT).
She has obtained a PhD in Sustainability at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia BarcelonaTech (2016), which mainly focused on evaluate the refurbishment of residential buildings in Mediterranean climate. She combines her work as a researcher at IREC, with the position of Associate Professor in the Department of Fluid Mechanics at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia BarcelonaTech.
Senior Researcher in Building Physics
Jordi Pascual (Dr) obtained his degree in physics, astrophysics specialty, at the Universitat de Barcelona in 1995. In 1999 he obtained a Postgraduate in energy systems at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya and during 2000 – 2001 he studied a Master degree in Design and management of Renewable Energy systems at Institut Català de la Tecnologia. In 2000, he founded AIGUASOL, an energy consultancy and engineering firm in which he served as Technical and marketing team manager, General manager and Senior consultant in EE and RES projects during different periods until 2019. Parallel, during 2008-2015, he obtained a Doctorate degree in Sustainability, Technology and Humanism at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. In 2014 he founded the AIGUASOL spinoff Exsergy efficiency, dedicated to buildings EE ESCO operations, and served until 2019 as Technical main manager. In 2019 he became part of IREC staff as a senior researcher of the Thermal Energy and Building Performance (ECOS) Group. During the last years, he has been proposing and/or participating at several EU founded research projects, as Mednice, Houseful, Plug&Harvest, 4RinEU, Integridy, GrowSmarter or so on, and other national or regional R+D projects, mainly related to building physics, energy efficiency and renewable energy systems.
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