Scaling Grid-Edge Upgrades with Inclusive Utility Investments

What would happen if money-saving energy upgrades could be installed in any sound building without upfront costs or occupants taking on a debt obligation? California’s utility regulators recently ordered investor-owned utilities to develop a tariff for inclusive utility investments, answering a key recommendations in the state’s 2019 Energy Efficiency Action Plan and the CEC’s landmark […]

Electrochemical Wastewater Refining for Circular Chemical Manufacturing

Energy and water are two critical interdependent systems that impact environmental quality and require urgent innovation. Mining critical materials for energy storage requires large freshwater inputs and introduces pollutants to aqueous environments. Treating wastewater and producing potable require substantial energy inputs. Electrochemical wastewater refining, or the generation of tunable product portfolios from waste streams, can […]

End-use electrification and its impact on distribution systems

In what ways will utilities need to upgrade the electric distribution grid to accommodate electrified loads, and what will those upgrades cost? Our study focuses on the PG&E service area in Northern California, which serves 4.8 million electricity customers and is subject to aggressive targets for both EV adoption and electrification of residential space and […]

Sustainable Systems Science for Accelerating Clean Energy Transitions and Climate Solutions

Location: 1605 Tilia Street, Suite 100, Davis, CA Watch Video The next few years are critical. Immediate and deep reductions in greenhouse gas emissions are necessary across all sectors or limiting warming to 1.5 °C will be beyond reach.  Sustainable systems science provides a useful framework and tools to characterize mobility, buildings, food, and other […]

Hydrogen Transportation Systems in California: Prospects and the State of Play

Friday, November 4, 2022 Lewis M. Fulton Director, STEPS (Sustainable Transportation Energy Pathways) Lewis Fulton has worked internationally in the field of transportation, energy, and environment analysis and policy development for over 25 years. He is Director of the Sustainable Transportation Energy Pathways Program (STEPS+) within the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of […]

Alumni Panel

Friday, December 2, 2022 Alumni Panel: Kristen Bush, Rhys Davis Kristen Bush: Kristen Bush is an Engineer/Scientist I on the Electric Transportation team at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). She currently assists with various projects with research topics including transportation equity, infrastructure design, and inventories related to medium- and heavy-duty electric vehicles. Prior to […]

Developing the Western US Power Grid through Markets

Electricity demand is growing across the Western United States as economies boom and the transition to electrified transportation and buildings begins. At the same time, state policies are rapidly transforming the mix of power generation sources, from fossil fueled to carbon free. The grid across the Western US has long been interconnected, but its operation […]

Accelerating the Just Energy Transition with Science and Policy

The climate emergency we face has prompted some nations, corporations, and many civil society organizations to greatly expand their decarbonization and climate protection actions. The paths to deeply decarbonizing local, national and regional economies requires innovations in a wide range of areas where new, sustainable, materials design, discovery, and implementation, and most notably highly interdisciplinary […]