Current Projects

This project, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office, is investigating knowledge flows regarding utility scale solar projects in rural communities in the Great Lakes region of the U.S. The project is also looking at the adoption of zoning policies in this region, as well as quantifying the economic, workforce, and grid impacts of utility scale solar. This is a collaborative project with researchers at the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, and Iowa State University. See project website.

This project, funded by the Utility Scale Solar Energy Coalition, is exploring the complexities associated with land use transitions for utility scale solar energy expansion in Ohio. In particular, the study is first calculating the economic impacts of the utility scale solar activity in Ohio, and comparing those results with the potential economic losses of decreased crop production as a result of displacing arable land. The study is then detailing the potential environmental impacts of this land use change, such as site-level impacts to soil, water quality, greenhouse gas emissions, and land surface energy balances. This is a collaborative project with researchers at The Ohio State University and Ohio University.

This project, funded by The Nature Conservancy, is examining land use policies and goals for renewable energy facilities in Ohio’s townships, cities, counties, regional planning commissions, and port authorities. This project is also operationalizing the state’s largest employers and their public commitments to renewable energy, among other climate goals, to better understand the magnitude and location of these demand-side drivers to assist in project siting decisions. Click here for a preliminary executive summary of the project.

This project is assessing submitted, written testimony for utility scale solar projects in the Midwest, aiming to better discern the variables that matter to locals when it comes to building a new facility (e.g., aesthetics, impacts to wildlife, air/soil/water/noise pollution, land use impacts, etc.). Understanding these variables will help develop smarter paths forward for communities making siting and approval decisions on large, renewable energy facilities.