Baker

RASEI Fellows receive 2024-2025 Deloitte and CIC Research Awards

Daniel Morton — Mon, 11 Nov 2024 21:11:59 +0000

RASEI Fellows receive 2024-2025 Deloitte and CIC Research Awards Daniel Morton Mon, 11/11/2024 - 14:11

Daniel Morton

The Climate Innovation Collaboratory (CIC) was launched as a collaborative venture between �� Boulder and Deloitte, with the goal of translating cutting-edge climate research and data into meaningful climate solutions for businesses, organization, government agencies and communities.

This year three RASEI Fellows were recipients of awards to develop long-term engagements with Deloitte and expand access to critical climate data analytics, research and technology. These projects explore how the renewable energy grid can be built out to offer clean solutions for AI data centers and greater adoption of electric vehicles.

RASEI Fellow Bri-Mathias Hodge is the principal investigator for a project titled “Interconnection Planning for Large Data Centers”. The goal is to develop a system planning tool to automate the initial processes needed for utilities to identify generation expansion, network reinforcement, and asset upgrades to meet the demands of new data centers. This work will help utilities, grid operators, and data center operators to deal with the expansion in the number and energy usage of data centers at the state, regional, and international levels. With the rise of AI, seen as the industrial revolution of the 21^st century, better understanding of how and where to place the data centers that are the engines driving this transformation will be critical.

RASEI Fellow Kyri Baker is the principal investigator for a project titled “Viability of long- and short-duration energy storage for AI Data Centers: Carbon, Cost, and Reliability”. This project combines the benefits of short and long duration energy storage to increase uptime, improve renewable energy utilization, and lower payback periods for AI data centers. By developing an optimization framework for data centers energy storage that leverages price and renewable energy forecasts to co-optimize cost, carbon, and resilience. Creation of a tool that optimizes data energy storage would have significant relevance to commercial and government clients seeking to lower data center consumption.

RASEI Fellow Stephanie Weber is the principal investigator for a project titled “EV Infrastructure and local economic spillovers”. This project seeks to understand both how the construction of public electric vehicle charging infrastructure affects the surrounding areas as well as the tradeoffs associated with prioritizing equity in public charging locations. This will help inform state and national governments in the deployment of EV charging stations, to help incentivize EV adoption, and better understand the non-monetary impact of building EV chargers.

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Weather-related power outages are on the rise. Here's why, what to expect in the future

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Jul 2024 06:00:00 +0000

Weather-related power outages are on the rise. Here's why, what to expect in the future Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 07/23/2024 - 00:00

This discussion in �� Boulder Today with RASEI Fellow Kyri Baker explores the importance of the power grid, how climate change is threatening aging infrastructure and what upgrades are needed to support a future powered by renewable energy

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Colorado is latest state to try turning off the electrical grid to prevent wildfires

Anonymous — Fri, 12 Apr 2024 06:00:00 +0000

Colorado is latest state to try turning off the electrical grid to prevent wildfires Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 04/12/2024 - 00:00

Kyri Baker discusses the benefits and challenges of this strategy.

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Supply, demand and polarization challenges facing US climate policies

Anonymous — Tue, 16 Jan 2024 07:00:00 +0000

Supply, demand and polarization challenges facing US climate policies Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 01/16/2024 - 00:00

NATURE CLIMATE CHANGE, 2024, 14, 134-142

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Analyses of the Opportunities and Barriers associated with Electrochemical-Driven Decarbonization

Anonymous — Fri, 27 Oct 2023 06:00:00 +0000

Analyses of the Opportunities and Barriers associated with Electrochemical-Driven Decarbonization Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 10/27/2023 - 00:00

Daniel Morton

The Climate Crisis has already caused increases in the occurrence of major weather events, such as heat waves, wildfires, and sea level rise worldwide. With less than three months left, 2023 is on track to be the hottest year in a 174-year record.

A Review on previous analysis methods for electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide

Decarbonization of the chemical industry through electrification

Barriers and opportunities for the deployment of carbon dioxide electrolysis in net-zero emissions energy systems

Analysis of the use of electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction for air-to-syngas pathways

The emission of carbon into the Earth’s atmosphere is driving this change and in 2022 CO₂ emissions reached an all-time-high of more than 36.8 Gt-CO₂. That is the equivalent of 368,000 fully loaded U.S. aircraft carriers, or put another way, 1 Gt is roughly twice the mass of all humans on the planet. In 2022 the world is further away from net-zero emissions than we have ever been before.

In order to effectively address the climate crisis, we cannot rely solely on a transition to clean and renewable energy sources and reduction of carbon emissions, we are going to need effective methods to remove the carbon we have already put into the atmosphere to mitigate the increasing frequency of extreme weather events. The technologies need to achieve this are still emerging, and there are many aspects that are not fully understood. Two RASEI Fellows, Bri-Mathias Hodge and Wilson Smith have, over the past two years, been part of a series of studies that have applied rigorous analysis and modeling approaches to provide a thorough assessment of decarbonization and carbon capture technologies that outline the barriers, and opportunities, of a circular economy for carbon.

These studies have explored a series of different perspectives on how electrification and the electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide can impact different sectors in our efforts to accelerate decarbonization. The scope of these studies has been broad, exploring impacts on the transport sector, chemical (this study also brought in RASEI Fellow Kyri Baker as a collaborator), and industrial complexes. This includes everything from more efficient and direct methods for heating, to replacing the carbon building blocks we pull out of the ground in the form of oil and gas with ones we can pull out of the atmosphere.

The most recent article in this series, which was published this month in the Journal Energy & Environmental Sciences, revolves around the use of direct air carbon dioxide capture (DACC), powered by renewable electricity, to generate syngas, an essential industrial feedstock for the production of fuels, plastics, advanced materials, and medicines. The electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction approach offers a more energy efficient strategy that can produce this valuable commodity while reducing the amount of carbon in our atmosphere.

RASEI Fellows Bri-Mathias Hodge and Wilson Smith has been part of a series of collaborative studies that have explored the use of electrochemical carbon reduction.

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Do You Even Decarbonize, Bro?

Anonymous — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 06:00:00 +0000

Do You Even Decarbonize, Bro? Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 04/24/2023 - 00:00

RASEI Fellow Kyri Baker is featured in this article that explores reasons to be optimistic and excited about the clean energy transition.

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Your stove is the first appliance to get a battery, but not the last

Anonymous — Tue, 28 Mar 2023 06:00:00 +0000

Your stove is the first appliance to get a battery, but not the last Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 03/28/2023 - 00:00

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How to electrify your home, lessen your carbon footprint and save money

Anonymous — Wed, 15 Feb 2023 19:42:43 +0000

How to electrify your home, lessen your carbon footprint and save money Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 02/15/2023 - 12:42

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Decarbonization of the chemical industry through electrification: Barriers and opportunities

Anonymous — Wed, 18 Jan 2023 07:00:00 +0000

Decarbonization of the chemical industry through electrification: Barriers and opportunities Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 01/18/2023 - 00:00

JOULE, 2023, 7, 1, 23-41

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Keeping Cool while using the least amount of energy

Anonymous — Mon, 22 Aug 2022 06:00:00 +0000

Keeping Cool while using the least amount of energy Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 08/22/2022 - 00:00

This article in the The Conversation, co-authored by RASEI Fellow Kyri Baker, explores more energy efficient strategies for keeping cool

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