The Boltzmann Institute
- is a Canadian organization seeking to help eliminate harmful emissions from human energy use
- is named for Ludwig Boltzmann, a founder of the science of thermodynamics, which concerns the relations between heat and other forms of energy
- is a federally incorporated, not-for-profit corporation, founded in 2022
- aims to contribute research and education towards securing climate neutrality by 2050, initially focusing on thermal energy use (i.e., heating and cooling) in buildings
- has an early goal to compare two pathways towards climate neutrality in buildings:
- through producing thermal energy at buildings (e.g., using electricity)
- through delivering the energy via thermal networks (e.g., district heating using distributed hot water).
- is working to develop ways of assessing the most cost-effective balances of the two kinds of plan.
Ludwig Boltzmann was a 19th-century Austrian physicist and philosopher of science, who as well as helping establish the science of thermodynamics was an early exponent of the atomic theory of matter.
According to a biographer, Boltzmann was an “irascible, extraordinary, difficult man, an early follower of Darwin, quarrelsome and delightful, and everything that a human being should be.” A 1966 assessment of his philosophical work included, “In his realization of the hypothetical character of all our knowledge, Boltzmann was far ahead of his time and perhaps even our time.”
Contact: info@bi-ib.ca