Lixi Liu joined the Residential Buildings Solutions and Scaling Group at NREL in 2019. Her work focuses on building energy model development, simulation, and data analysis, with the goal of developing equitable national and city-level electrification and energy efficiency road maps. Lixi is also a key contributor to dsgrid software development. Prior to joining NREL, Lixi completed her master’s and Ph.D. at the University of Michigan. For her Ph.D. thesis, she addressed building sustainability by developing a model that optimized consumer lighting replacement schedules with respect to life cycle costs, energy emissions, and projected grid impacts. Her thesis also assessed the environmental impacts of recovering rare-earth and critical metals from commercial lighting wastes vis-à-vis alternative strategies (landfilling, extended use, modular replacement) and identified opportunities for circular economy approaches.

Research Interests

Building energy model development

Building simulation and data analysis

Development of equitable electrification and energy efficiency road maps

Education

Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering and Natural Resources and Environment, University of Michigan

M.S., Mechanical Engineering and Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan

B.S., Mechanical Engineering, Kettering University

Featured Work

U.S. Building Stock Characterization Study: A National Typology for Decarbonizing U.S. Buildings, NREL Technical Report (2021)

LCA of Rare Earth and Critical Metal Recovery and Replacement Decisions for Commercial Lighting Waste Management, Resources, Conservation and Recycling (2020)

Replacement Policy of Residential Lighting Optimized for Cost, Energy, and Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Environmental Research Letters (2017)