Won Young Park
Won Young Park serves as an Energy/Environment Policy Researcher at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), specializing in energy efficiency within the area of equipment and appliances. He played a key role as a technical lead in the Global Lighting and Energy Access Partnership (LEAP) Off-Grid Awards, focusing on TVs, fans, and refrigerating appliances. Additionally, his contributions extend to the development of the United for Efficiency (U4E) Model Regulation Guidelines for cooling equipment, spearheaded by the UN Environment Programme U4E Initiative. These guidelines are designed to support developing and emerging economies in establishing or enhancing their energy-efficiency standards. With a commitment to advancing global energy efficiency, he has provided extensive national and regional market, technology, and policy analyses, particularly in the domains of air conditioners and refrigerating appliances in several countries, including Brazil, China, Indonesia, Rwanda, ASEAN, and various nations across Africa. In his current research pursuits, he is actively engaged in projects focusing on deep decarbonization pathways for the power sectors of South Korea and Japan. Simultaneously, he contributes to research on electric vehicles and battery-electric shipping in the United States.
Prior to joining LBNL, he gained valuable experience at Samsung SDI in South Korea, where he focused on digital display technology. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics from Yonsei University, Korea, and a Master of Public Policy degree from the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley.
Awards
K-CEP Progress on Cooling Policy Award: Nihar Shah, Won Young Park - February 6th 2020
In 2020, the Kigali Cooling Efficiency Program (K-CEP) awarded the LBNL team of Won Young Park and Nihar Shah the "Progress on Cooling Policy" award along with the UN Environment (UNEP) United for Efficiency (U4E) Initiative and the Natural Resources Defence Council (NRDC) in recognition of their work on the U4E "Model Regulation Guidelines" for energy-efficient and climate-friendly air-conditioners. The potential worldwide energy and environmental benefits by 2040 that are possible with a market transition, supported by policy improvements aligned with the model regulation guidelines, to energy-efficient room air-conditioners are estimated to be about 558 terawatt-hours, equivalent to electricity generation from 255 500-megawatt-capacity power plants and 516 million tons of CO2 emissions.