Women in Renewable Energy 3031285425, 9783031285424

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Women in Engineering and Science

Katherine T. Wang Jill S. Tietjen   Editors

Women in Renewable Energy

Women in Engineering and Science Series Editor Jill S. Tietjen Greenwood Village CO, USA

The Springer Women in Engineering and Science series highlights women’s accomplishments in these critical fields. The foundational volume in the series provides a broad overview of women’s multi-faceted contributions to engineering over the last century. Each subsequent volume is dedicated to illuminating women’s research and achievements in key, targeted areas of contemporary engineering and science endeavors.The goal for the series is to raise awareness of the pivotal work women are undertaking in areas of keen importance to our global community.

Katherine T. Wang  •  Jill S. Tietjen Editors

Women in Renewable Energy

Editors Katherine T. Wang Energy Solutions Orange, CA, USA

Jill S. Tietjen Technically Speaking, Inc Greenwood Village, CO, USA

ISSN 2509-6427     ISSN 2509-6435 (electronic) Women in Engineering and Science ISBN 978-3-031-28542-4    ISBN 978-3-031-28543-1 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-28543-1 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

For my husband, Mark, who has always been there to support me – Katherine T. Wang

Foreword

Renewable energy is critical to Earth’s future. Without widespread and rapid movement to renewable energy, our ability to avoid catastrophic climate impacts is in peril. Why is renewable energy critical? The United Nations has documented  – beyond doubt – that fossil fuels, such as coal, oil, and gas, are by far the largest contributor to global climate change, accounting for over 75% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and nearly 90% of all carbon dioxide emissions. To avoid the worst impacts of climate change, GHG emissions globally need to be reduced by almost half by 2030 and reach net-zero by 2050. The IPCC’s 2011 Special Report on Renewables confirms that the total global technical potential for renewable energy is substantially higher than global energy demand. The International Energy Agency (IEA) reports that in 2020, renewable energy was almost 30% of global electricity production. If recent trends continue, renewable energy will provide roughly one-third of US electricity by 2030 and could reach 50% if deployment increases, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA) and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Renewable energy contributes to social and economic development, accelerates access to energy, contributes to a more secure energy supply, and provides important environmental benefits beyond GHG emission avoidance. Reduction of pollution and climate impacts from fossil-fired fuels alone could save the world up to $4.2 trillion by 2030, primarily through reduced healthcare costs and lower morbidity. And every dollar of renewable investment creates three times more jobs than in the fossil fuel industry. Renewable energy is especially important for women in developing countries. Restricted access to energy or access to only dirty fuel sources leads to major health consequences, physical drudgery, social inequality, and poverty. For example, burning traditional biofuels for domestic fuels increases the risk of pneumonia by 80% compared to using clean cooking facilities and doubles the chances of developing lung disease and lung cancer. The World Bank reports that by some estimates the average firewood load carried by women for several miles daily varies from 25 to 50 kg.

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Like many old-line industries, the energy business is overwhelmingly male. Women hold just 22% of jobs in energy production and distribution, according to the IEA, even though they make up 48% of the global workforce. The number is even lower among senior managers: just 14%. The picture is also troublesome in renewables. Women make up nearly half the labor force in the United States and Canada, but a 2019 survey by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) found that women represent at most 32% of the renewable energy workforce in these countries and that the balance is even worse at management levels. Men are much more likely than women to advance even in the renewables area. In addition, the gender wage gap is real. At the same time, women today abound in key roles in renewables. We all benefit from past efforts by many, many women. One chapter of this book highlights achievements of pioneering women in renewables including Maria Telkes and Hazel O’Leary, among many others. I would like to bring special attention to Olga Gonzales-Sanabria, the highest-ranking Hispanic at the NASA Glenn Research Center. She has played a key role in the development of the Long Cycle-Life Hydrogen Battery which helps enable the International Space Station power system. She has also worked on fuel cells and energy storage for Mars. In my experience, two factors are critical to support women in energy. The first is one-on-one mentoring – both formal and informal – starting even before college and continuing well into professional life. The second is professional networking. There are well-established renewable organizations supporting women: Women of Renewable Industries and Sustainable Energy (WRISE), Women in Renewable Energy (WiRE), Women in Solar Energy, and the global Women in Sustainability, Environment, and Renewable Energy (WiSER). Such organizations are critical not only in increasing the visibility of women but also for promoting high-level professional connections and institutional resources to convert networks into promotions and salary increases. I close with a few facts about myself and how other women have supported and inspired me. I began my career 45  years ago, in California’s state energy office, where I worked on the first ever renewable policies and analyses of renewable options to traditional power plants. Women senior to me provided role models for how women can be leaders. Moving forward decades, I served as a Commissioner at the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) 2005–2006 where my first vote was to launch California’s Million Solar Roofs initiative. During that time, I was appointed by the U.S.  Secretary of Energy as an Ambassador to the Clean Energy Education & Empowerment (C3E) Initiative, a program designed to inspire more women to enter leadership roles across the clean energy spectrum: from laboratories, legislatures, investment companies, and businesses to think tanks, schools, NGOs, and law firms. Kristina Johnson, then Deputy Secretary of DOE, was a major force in the early stages of C3E and is also showcased in this book. The C3E Initiative continues, and I encourage all women to learn more about it. After my CPUC tenure, I joined Stanford University, where I founded the Shultz Energy Fellowship program, providing students with summer internships in energy agencies and organizations throughout the West. I have also been active in the Association

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of Women in Water, Energy, and the Environment (AWWEE), California’s largest professional education and networking organization for women in these areas. C3E, AWWEE, Stanford University, and numerous other organizations have been pivotal for my personal and career development. Not only have they provided me with invaluable networks and role models, but they have also allowed me to mentor many others, particularly women, which continues to inspire me. This book showcases women leaders in renewable energy, many of whom I have worked with and some that I am meeting for the first time. I hope the book motivates all readers to join in the efforts to develop renewable energy and, equally important, to support women as participants and leaders in the clean energy transition.

Dian Grueneich

Commissioner Emeritus, California Public Utilities Commission, San Francisco, CA, USA Former Precourt Energy Scholar, Precourt Institute for Energy, Doerr School of Sustainability, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA Member, George P. Shultz Energy & Climate Task Force, Hoover Institution, Stanford, CA, USA Founder and Principal, Dian Grueneich Consulting, Stanford, CA, USA

Introduction

What Is Renewable Energy? Renewable energy is defined as energy that is continuously replenished (renewed) and therefore virtually inexhaustible [3]. Examples of renewable energy include solar, wind, bioenergy (biomass, liquid biofuels, and biogas), hydroelectricity, and geothermal energy. Virtually all renewable energy sources ultimately come from the sun. Wind is created from the diurnal heating and cooling of the earth and the atmosphere. As air molecules heat up they expand, become buoyant, and rise, causing cooler heavier air to rush in to fill the vacuum. Bioenergy is the byproduct of plant matter that can be harvested and regrown quickly. The sun also drives the earth’s hydrologic cycle. Other terms used to describe renewable energy include alternative energy and carbon-free energy. Alternative energy refers to energy sources other than fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas, and alternative energy resources generally have a low environmental impact. Carbon-free sources are also considered renewable energy because their consumption does not release a net surplus of carbon dioxide, a main driver of global warming, into the atmosphere. While bioenergy combustion releases carbon dioxide, it is effectively recaptured when the fuels are regrown or regenerated. Renewable energy is not completely free of environmental impact. Currently small-scale solar photovoltaics are manufactured using hazardous materials and create end-of-life challenges with disposal. Utility-scale solar uses significant amounts of water to generate steam for turbines, which can be problematic as such resources are typically located in dry desert climates [7]. Utility-scale solar, wind, and hydroelectricity create challenges for wildlife both during construction and once in operation.

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Why Is Renewable Energy Important? The benefits of renewable energy can be categorized as economic, environmental, and societal. Renewable energy creates jobs for manufacturers, designers, engineers, developers, commercial and industrial construction, building trades, sales, management, and other sectors. Solar and wind energy reduce air pollution both locally and regionally, improving the health of the population and reducing healthcare costs of residents. Renewable energy increases energy security by reducing our dependence on oil not only for electricity generation but also transportation, as the population transitions to electric vehicles. For remote, coastal, or island communities that traditionally rely on imported oil, renewable energy expands energy access and enhances energy resilience during occurrences of hurricanes and storms. Renewable energy is key to slowing down and halting climate change. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, sustained reductions in global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions to half of 2015 levels by 2050 or earlier and eventually to zero before the end of the century would reduce the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere needed to mitigate climate change [4]. Climate change is driving unprecedented natural disasters that are occurring with greater frequency and intensity. These events risk destabilizing governments and displacing populations by threatening stable food and water supplies, damaging buildings and infrastructure, and disrupting energy services essential for a healthy economy. The electricity sector emits roughly one-third of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. Replacing fossil-fired electricity generation with carbon-free and renewable generation is a key strategy for combating climate change. Experts who show us the pathways to achieving high adoption of renewable resources are highlighted in this book.

What About Nuclear Energy? Some experts include nuclear energy as an alternative energy and carbon-free energy since it is not a fossil fuel. The advantage of nuclear power is its energy density. However, today’s nuclear energy technology is not renewable because the technology uses uranium-235, which is a relatively rare resource. Nuclear energy generates radioactive byproducts that remain dangerous to human health for thousands of years and must be carefully contained and managed. On the other hand, nuclear power plants reduce our reliance on coal and natural gas electricity generation, and need to be part of the strategy towards decarbonizing our economy.1

 As I write this Introduction, the ongoing war in Ukraine is causing energy costs to soar in Europe and threatening social stability in the coming winter, with protests erupting over energy and inflation [5]. Germany’s enthusiasm to shut down nuclear power plants since 2011 and replace them with solar and wind has put them in an untenable position as Russia weaponized natural gas supply by cutting off the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline. Germany’s electricity costs are 50% higher than they 1

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Renewable Energy Alone Cannot Solve the Whole Problem While the electricity generated is carbon free and renewable, solar and wind cannot meet society’s energy needs all the time. The intermittency of solar and wind requires us to employ a diverse portfolio of energy resource options for reliability, resiliency against natural disasters, and affordability to sustain a thriving economy.2 Dispatchable renewable energy sources such as hydroelectricity and geothermal can fill in for solar and wind generation but are only available in specific regions such as the Pacific Northwest and the Western United States. A variety of energy storage solutions are needed to ensure that businesses and citizens have access to electricity when it is needed. These include battery energy storage, thermal energy storage, and bioenergy storage. Being more flexible with our demand and consumption of electricity means the ability to manually or (better yet) automatically adjust our thermostats, turning down or turning off industrial equipment or home appliances, when extreme heat or other conditions constrain the electricity supply. We will also need to continue burning natural gas in the near and medium term as our society transitions to renewable energy. While natural gas is a fossil fuel, it emits more than 40% less CO2 per million Btu (MMBtu) of coal and 25% less compared to oil [2]. Burning natural gas also emits less of all other types of air pollutants compared to coal and other fossil fuels. Keeping natural gas power plants online allows the retirement of more coal plants and slows or halts deforestation in developing countries who burn wood for fuel. The takeaway is that the practical path towards transitioning to a renewable energy-driven economy is not “pure” or uncomplicated. The speed and scale of renewable energy adoption must strike a balance with reliability, affordability, and equity. Some of the technology that we need to make the transition is also just becoming available or has not yet been developed. Fortunately, we have a team of experts to help develop a balanced plan and guide us on the journey. Many of the clean electricity industry’s leading experts are sharing their knowledge and advice in this book. Energy Solutions, Orange, CA, USA

Katherine T. Wang

are in France, which has taken a more measured approach to the renewable energy transition and kept their nuclear power plants in operation [6]. 2  The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in September 2022 that the Consumer Price Index in the United States climbed to 8.3% in the last year, compared to 2.5% in previous years [1]. High energy costs are a main driver of inflation. Energy is a key input in the production of all goods. It is needed to grow food, to manufacture goods, to transport those goods to consumers, and to enable services. Therefore, when energy cost and prices go up, it pushes the cost of virtually everything else up in the economy as well. Energy price is a key driver of inflation.

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References 1. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor: Consumer Price Index – August 2022, September 13, 2022. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/cpi.pdf 2. Energy Information Administration (EIA): Natural Gas Explained. U.S. Department of Energy. December 2021. https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/renewable-­sources/ 3. Energy Information Administration (EIA): Renewable Energy Explained. U.S. Department of Energy. June 2022. https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/renewable-­sources/ 4. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC): 2021 Sixth Assessment Report. Chapter 4 Frequently Asked Questions. Working Group I: The Physical Science Basis. Retrieved 7/3/2022 from https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/resources/frequently-­asked-­questions/ 5. Global Times, Staff reporters: Soaring Energy Prices Ordeal for European Leaders as Protests Erupt in More Countries. September 12, 2022. https://www.globaltimes.cn/ page/202209/1275084.shtml 6. Lynch, M.: Germany’s Energy Crisis Dispels Several Myths. Forbes. August 2022. https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaellynch/2022/08/31/germanys-­energy-­crisis-­dispels­several-­myths/?sh=5ecb918a25e9 7. Union of Concerned Scientists (UCC). March 5, 2013. Environmental Impacts of Solar Power. Retrieved 7/3/2022 from https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/environmental-­impacts-­solar-­power

Contents

 Pioneering Women in Renewable Energy������������������������������������������������������    1 Jill S. Tietjen  Are Electricity Customers Ready for a Renewables-Based Grid?��������������   29 Jane Peters  Islands Leading the Clean Energy Transition ����������������������������������������������   47 Kaitlyn J. Bunker Distributed Energy Resource Grid Transformation and Customer-Sited Virtual Power Plants����������������������������������������������������   63 Ja-Chin Audrey Lee, Laura Fedoruk, and Steve Wheat  Energy Storage and Renewable Energy��������������������������������������������������������   99 Erin Childs  Integrating Renewable Resources: Grid Operations and Policy Considerations��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  127 Jill S. Tietjen  Solar Energy Research: Coming-of-Age��������������������������������������������������������  151 Susan Huang The Role of Biobased Products and Bioenergy to Empower the Clean Transportation and Energy Transition ����������������������������������������  167 Virginia Irwin Klausmeier A Fault Detection Approach Based on Autoencoders for Condition Monitoring of Wind Turbines ������������������������������������������������  193 Yue Cui, Jose Eduardo Urrea Cabus, and Lina Bertling Tjernberg

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Using Building Loads Dynamically with Advanced Technologies to Enable Low Carbon Energy Systems��������������������������������������������������������  213 Mary Ann Piette and Katherine T. Wang Index������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  243

About the Editors

Katherine T. Wang, P.E. I grew up in a family of engineers and vowed to pursue a different career. Nevertheless, I was still interested in the other three parts of STEM – science, technology and mathematics, and entered Stanford University in fall of 1991 intending to study astrophysics. After performing poorly in a physics class, I did some soul searching to figure out what to do next. The answer came when I participated in an alternative spring break program in Joshua Tree National Monument inventorying endangered tortoises with the U.S. Park Service and then listening to hunters talk about conservation. I made the connection between that experience and the environmental club in high school that I co-founded, along with the school report I wrote on climate change. I switched my major to civil and environmental engineering. After taking two classes on building energy systems from the popular Professor Gil Masters, I further decided to focus on a career in efficiency and renewable energy. Gil’s classes made me realize that, by using energy resources more efficiently and prioritizing renewable resources, we can avoid generating pollution in the first place along  with their associated costs to human health and the environment. I stayed at Stanford to complete a Masters degree in civil and environmental engineering, then leveraged an internship at the American Council for an Energy Economy to my first job working for a small consulting firm in Boulder, Colorado started by a fellow alumnus, Joel Swisher. Another student of Gil Masters, Joel became an important mentor and gave me a solid and broad foundation in xvii

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the electric utility industry. Working under Joel, I was exposed to utility integrated resource planning, greenhouse gas emissions analysis and policy, building efficiency technology solutions and energy management. After working in consulting I got the itch to work at an engineering company, and pivoted to working at Utility Engineering based in Denver. There I was assigned to be a field engineer to support construction of environmental scrubbers at two coal plants in Denver and Boulder. I had a blast working and seeing power plant construction and operation firsthand. I have walked, crawled, and climbed inside and on top of boilers, turbines, generators, and cooling towers at those plants. The experience gave me a deep appreciation for this durable engineering innovation that has enabled modern society and economies. After two years in the field and fully wearing out my steel-toed boots, I returned to energy consulting. I rejoined Joel, who was establishing a new office in Boulder  for Rocky Mountain Institute. The position opened more doors to working with additional utilities around the country with energy resources planning, as well as heavy industry with reducing their energy and greenhouse gas emissions footprint. Along the way I became lifelong friends with many of the exceptionally talented and passionate colleagues, whom I feel privileged to have met. It was also at Rocky Mountain Institute where I first gained experience in demand response. I moved with my husband to southern California to be closer to family and continues to work in clean energy. I am currently a Technical Director at Energy Solutions, where I continue to oversee numerous demand management studies and incentive  programs for California utilities. The Lorax by Dr. Seuss remains one of my favorite stories. Jill S. Tietjen, P.E., entered the University of Virginia in the Fall of 1972 (the third year that women were admitted as undergraduates after a suit was filed in court by women seeking admission) intending to be a mathematics major. But midway through her first semester, she found engineering and made all of the arrangements necessary to transfer. In 1976, she graduated with a B.S. in Applied Mathematics (minor in Electrical Engineering) (Tau Beta Pi, Virginia Alpha) and went to work in the electric utility industry.

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Galvanized by the fact that no one, not even her Ph.D. engineer father, had encouraged her to pursue an engineering education and that only after her graduation did she discover that her degree was not ABETaccredited, she joined the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) and for more than 40  years has worked to encourage young women to pursue science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) careers. In 1982, she became licensed as a professional engineer in Colorado. Tietjen started working jigsaw puzzles at age two and has always loved to solve problems. She derives tremendous satisfaction seeing the result of her work – the electricity product that is so reliable that most Americans just take its provision for granted. Flying at night and seeing the lights below, she knows that she had a hand in this infrastructure miracle. An expert witness, she works to plan new power plants. Her efforts to nominate women for awards began in SWE and have progressed to her acknowledgement as one of the top nominators of women in the country. Her nominees have received the National Medal of Technology and the Kate Gleason Medal; they have been inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame and state Halls including Colorado, Maryland and Delaware; and have received university and professional society recognition. Tietjen believes that it is imperative to nominate women for awards – for the role modeling and knowledge of women’s accomplishments that it provides for the youth of our country. Tietjen received her MBA from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She has been the recipient of many awards including the Distinguished Service Award from SWE (of which she has been named a Fellow and is a National Past President), the Distinguished Alumna Award from the University of Virginia, and the Distinguished Alumna Award from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She has been inducted into the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame, the Colorado Authors’ Hall of Fame, and the National Academy of Construction. Tietjen sits on the board of Georgia Transmission Corporation and served for eleven years on the board of Merrick & Company. Her publications include the bestselling and award-­winning book Her Story: A Timeline of the Women Who Changed

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America for which she received the Daughters of the American Revolution History Award Medal and Hollywood: Her Story, An Illustrated History of Women and the Movies which has received numerous awards. Her award-winning book Over, Under, Around and Through: How Hall of Famers Surmount Obstacles was released in 2022.

Pioneering Women in Renewable Energy Jill S. Tietjen

1 Introduction Women have contributed to the development of renewable resources since pre-­ history. The women we know about, however, are all from the modern era. They include science popularizers Jane Haldimand Marcet and Mary Fairfax Somerville; science writer and educator Almira Hart Lincoln Phelps; and computer software pioneer Ada Byron Lovelace. These very early women are included in a chapter on women in renewable energy because they either made it possible for women to learn science professionally later or contributed to the developments of computers  – which led to the information age of today. After the invention of electricity, several women contributed to renewable energy and the development of the electric grid including engineers and physicists: Bertha Lamme, Edith Clarke, Mabel MacFerran Rockwell, and Maria Telkes. Since the latter half of the twentieth century, women have contributed through service to the U.S.  Department of Energy, as entrepreneurs and employees of renewable energy companies, and as government employees working on technology. Information on these pioneering women in renewables is presented in this chapter.

2 Jane Haldimand Marcet (1769–1858) Briton Jane Marcet (Fig. 1) worked to popularize science – writing books and papers that explained science to general readers  – specifically intended for women and young people. She is particularly remembered for the impact her Conversations in Chemistry had on influencing future scientist Michael Faraday (for whom the unit J. S. Tietjen (*) Technically Speaking, Inc., Greenwood Village, CO, USA © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 K. T. Wang, J. S. Tietjen (eds.), Women in Renewable Energy, Women in Engineering and Science, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-28543-1_1

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Fig. 1  Jane Haldimand Marcet. (Courtesy Wikipedia)

of electrical capacitance is named).1 [1] Jane was encouraged to begin a writing career by her husband, physician Dr. Alexander Marcet, whose passion for chemistry exceeded his interest in practicing as a physician. Conversations in Chemistry (1806) was very popular and went through numerous editions, including 15 American editions titled Mrs. Bryan’s Conversations. Jane Marcet believed that the information presented in a conversational format was more readily comprehended by the audience, as she was better able to understand chemistry after conversing with a friend. Her other books included Conversations on Botany, Conversations on Natural Philosophy, Conversations on Political Economy, and Conversations on Vegetable Physiology [1–5].

 Pioneering physicist Michael Faraday produced the first electrical generators and motors. The farad, the unit of electrical capacitance, was named for him. He introduced the terms “electrolyte” and “ions” into our scientific vocabulary. 1

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3 Mary Fairfax Somerville (1780–1872) One of the first honorary women members of the Royal Astronomical Society (Great Britain), Briton Mary Somerville (Fig.  2), like Jane Haldimand Marcet, helped to popularize science particularly for women. After spending a year at a boarding school when she was 10 years old, Mary developed a thirst for reading and arithmetic. She taught herself Latin, and then algebra, after seeing strange symbols in a ladies’ fashion magazine. When her parents found out about her interest in mathematics, her father forbade her study due to worries that mental activity would harm her female body. After her first husband died and left her with a modest inheritance, she openly educated herself in trigonometry and astronomy. Most of her friends and family did not support her educational efforts. Mary married her first cousin, Dr. William Somerville, and found in him someone to support her pursuits of educational and intellectual matters. In fact, William encouraged Mary to expand her studies beyond mathematics and astronomy to Greek, botany, and mineralogy. In 1834, she published On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences which presented a comprehensive picture of the latest research in the physical sciences. Her 1831 book, Mechanism of the Heavens, contributed to the

Fig. 2  Mary Fairfax Somerville. (Courtesy Library of Congress)

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modernization of English mathematics. Mary was occasionally criticized for her “unwomanly” pursuit of science, nevertheless, she was referred to, both in England and abroad, as “the premier scientific lady of the ages.” [6].

4 Almira Hart Lincoln Phelps (1793–1884) Almira Hart Lincoln (Fig.  3) became interested in science after the death of her husband in 1823 and her subsequent return to teaching on the staff of her sister’s (Emma Hart Willard) school, the Troy Female Seminary. She was encouraged by Rensselaer professor Amos Eaton. In 1829, she published her first science textbook, Familiar Lectures on Botany. After she married John Phelps in 1831, she continued to write and revise her textbooks in addition to taking care of her family responsibilities. Other volumes included Chemistry for Beginners (1834) and Familiar Lectures on Natural Philosophy (1837). She served as the principal for several female seminaries and emphasized science in the curriculum. Her teaching innovations included experimental methods in chemistry and botany. In 1859, she was the third woman elected as a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Although she supported educational equality for women, she opposed suffrage and was active in the Fig. 3  Almira Hart Lincoln Phelps. (Courtesy Wikipedia)

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Woman’s Anti-Suffrage Association. Upon her death, her herbarium of plants, collected throughout her lifetime, was presented to the Maryland Academy of Sciences, of which she was the first woman member [1, 4, 7, 8].

5 Ada Byron Lovelace (1815–1852) The daughter of the English poet Lord George Byron, Ada Lovelace now has a computer language named (Ada) after her. A somewhat sickly child, Lovelace was tutored at home and was competent in mathematics, astronomy, Latin, and music by the age of 14. Totally enthralled by Charles Babbage’s Difference Engine (an early computer concept), at 17 years old, Lovelace began studying differential equations. As proposed, his second machine, the analytical engine, could add, subtract, multiply, and divide directly and it would be programmed using punched cards, the same logical structure used by the first large-scale electronic digital computers in the twentieth century. In 1842, the Italian engineer, L.F. Menabrea published a theoretical and practical description of Babbage’s analytical engine. Lovelace translated this document adding “notes” in the translation. Her notes constitute about three times the length of the original document and, as explained by Babbage, the two documents together show “That the whole of the development and operations of analysis are now capable of being executed by machinery.” These notes include a recognition that the engine could be told what analysis to perform and how to perform it – the basis of computer software. Her notes (Fig. 4) were published in 1843 in Taylor’s Scientific Memoirs under her initials, because although she wanted credit for her work, it was considered undignified for aristocratic women to publish under their own names. Ada Lovelace is considered to be the first person to describe computer programming [9, 10].

6 Bertha Lamme (Feicht) (1869–1943) The first woman to graduate with a degree in engineering other than civil engineering, Bertha Lamme (Fig. 5) graduated in mechanical engineering (with an electrical engineering emphasis) from The Ohio State University in 1893, the second woman to receive an engineering degree at all and the only woman in her class. Lamme was considered an expert in motor design and had joined her brother (who had also graduated in mechanical engineering from The Ohio State University) at the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She was a member of her brother’s team at Westinghouse and their projects together included the first turbogenerators for the hydroelectric plant at Niagara Falls and the motors that operated the power plant of the Manhattan Elevated Railroad. An unpublished document from Westinghouse files refers to Lamme as a “designing

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Fig. 4  Ada Byron Lovelace – Note G. (Courtesy Wikipedia) Fig. 5  Bertha Lamme, George Westinghouse Museum Collection, Detre Library & Archives, Senator John Heinz History Center

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engineer” and “one of the few women who have made a notable success of this work.” Although she was part of a team and restricted from the shop floor or the field due to her gender, the Pittsburgh Dispatch in 1907 reported: … even in that hothouse of gifted electricians and inventors. She is accounted a master of the slide rule and can untangle the most intricate problems in ohms and amperes as easily and quickly as any man expert in the shop.

Earlier, in December 1899, the Woman’s Journal—based on a report in the New York Sun from the previous month—called Lamme “the particular star among American women electricians,” and noted that she “designs machinery, makes calculations, and does exactly the work of a male electrical engineer.” [11]. Both her brother and her husband attained fame for their accomplishments and it is not clear how much she helped either one. Her brother lived with Lamme and her husband throughout the remainder of his life. Lamme remained at Westinghouse until 1905 when she married her supervisor (and was required to leave employment). The Ohio State University named the Lamme Power Systems Laboratory in honor of Bertha and her brother Benjamin. Lamme’s slide rule and a drawing she made of a drill bit are in the permanent “Pittsburgh: A Tradition of Innovation” exhibit at the Senator John Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Center opines “A woman in a man’s world. Never before had a female sat at the drafting table with men to compute, calculate and design the tools, motors and machinery that powered the new era of electricity.” The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) annually awards a Bertha Lamme Memorial Scholarship, established in 1973, in conjunction with the Westinghouse Educational Foundation. Her daughter became a physicist [4, 12–14].

7 Edith Clarke (1883–1959) A woman engineer with many firsts to her name, Edith Clarke (Fig. 6) grew up in Maryland without any intentions of even going to college. Orphaned by the time she was twelve, Clarke attended boarding school, reached the age of eighteen (the age of majority) and then decided to go to college so that she could find interesting work; work that replicated the interest she had discovered while playing duplicate whist (a card game). She spent principal from her inheritance, against the advice of many family members and friends, to obtain an education because of a remembrance of a conversation she had with her mother years earlier in which her mother indicated her approval of a young man’s decision to spend his inheritance on a college education – and who thereafter became a brilliant lawyer [15]. After graduating from Vassar with an A.B. in mathematics and astronomy in 1908 (Phi Beta Kappa), Clarke taught math and science for 3 years in San Francisco and West Virginia. But teaching was not holding her interest and she decided to pursue becoming an engineer instead. She enrolled as a civil engineering

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Fig. 6  Edith Clarke. (Courtesy Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University)

undergraduate student at the University of Wisconsin and remained there for a year [4, 13, 16]. Then, she went to work for American Telephone & Telegraph Company (AT & T) as a computing assistant. She intended to return to the University of Wisconsin to complete her engineering studies but found the work so interesting at AT & T that she stayed for 6 years [15]. Clarke is an example of an early “computer” – women with advanced training in mathematics who performed calculations for engineers (men) [4]. During World War I, Clarke supervised the women at AT & T who did computations for research engineers in the Transmission Department and studied radio at Hunter College and electrical engineering at Columbia University at night. Eventually, she enrolled at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and received her master’s degree in electrical engineering in 1919; the first woman awarded that degree from MIT [4]. Upon graduation, she wanted to work for either General Electric (GE) or Westinghouse. But even with her stellar credentials, no one would hire her as an engineer because of her gender – they had no openings for a woman engineer! In 1920, after a long job search, GE offered Clarke a computing job, directing women computers who were calculating the mechanical stresses in turbines for the turbine engineering department at GE [4, 15]. But Clarke wanted to be an electrical engineer! Since that was not the job she was offered and since she wanted to travel the world, she left GE in 1921 to teach physics at the Constantinople Women’s College (now Istanbul American College) in Turkey. She was able to also visit France, Switzerland, Italy, Egypt, Austria, Germany, Holland, and England during her time abroad. A year later GE did offer her a job as an electrical engineer in the central station engineering department. At last, she had found work as interesting as a duplicate whist game [4, 15]! With this offer, she became the first professionally employed female electrical engineer in the U.S [17].

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Clarke’s area of specialty was electric power systems and problems related to its operation. She made innovations in long-distance power transmission and the development of the theory of symmetrical components and circuit analysis [4]. Symmetrical components are a mathematical means by which engineers can study and solve problems of power system losses and performance of electrical equipment. Clarke literally wrote the landmark textbook in this area, Circuit Analysis of AC Power Systems, Symmetrical and Related Components (1943) and a second volume in 1950. This textbook, in its two volumes, was used to educate all power system engineers for many years [4, 15, 17]. Clarke published eighteen technical papers during her employment at GE reflecting her status as an authority on the topics of hyperbolic functions, equivalent circuits, and graphical analysis within electric power systems. The papers were published in organs including The General Electric Review, the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE)’s Transactions, Electrical Engineering, and the AIEE Journal. Her first paper, titled “Transmission Line Calculations,” was published in the General Electric Review in June 1923 and describes her mechanical calculator. “Simplified Transmission Line Calculations,” which appeared in the General Electric Review in May 1926, provided charts for transmission line calculations. She was also involved in the design of hydroelectric dams in the Western U.S. [15, 17]. Clarke received a patent in 1925 (U.S. Patent No. 1,552,113) for her “graphical calculator” – a method of considering the impacts of capacity and inductance on long electrical transmission lines. It greatly simplified the calculations that needed to be done. In 1926, she was the first woman to address what is today the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) – at the time it was known as the AIEE [4]. Her topic was “Steady-State Stability in Transmission Systems [15].” In 1932, Clarke became the first woman to present a paper before the AIEE; her paper, “Three-Phase Multiple-Conductor Circuits,” was named the best paper of the year in the northeastern district. This paper examined the use of multiple conductor transmission lines with the aim of increasing the capacity of the power lines. In 1948, Clarke was named one of the first three women fellows of IEEE [4]. She had previously become the first female full voting member of IEEE [17]. Clarke was also the recipient of the Woman’s Badge from Tau Beta Pi (at a time before women were admitted to membership) [16]. She was one of the few women who were licensed professional engineers in New York State [15]. A year after her retirement from GE in 1945, Clarke became an associate professor of electrical engineering at the University of Texas. In 1947, she rose to full professorship becoming the first woman professor of electrical engineering in the U.S [4, 17]. She served on numerous committees and provided special assistance to graduate students through her position as graduate student advisor [4]. In 1954, Clarke received SWE’s Achievement Award “in recognition of her many original contributions to stability theory and circuit analysis.” In 2015, she was posthumously inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for her invention of the graphical calculator [17].

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8 Katharine Burr Blodgett (1898–1979) The first woman scientist at GE, Katharine Blodgett (Fig. 7) was the inventor of invisible, or non-reflecting, glass. This glass is used extensively in camera and optical equipment. In fact, one of its first applications was in a projection lens for the 1939 movie Gone With the Wind. In addition, this glass forms the basis of today’s solar panels. The surface chemistry techniques that she developed with her mentor, Irving Langmuir, are called Langmuir-Blodgett films. Blodgett won a scholarship to attend Bryn Mawr, where she became intrigued with math and physics, and graduated second in her class. She wanted to work at GE, as had her father, but Irving Langmuir, 1932 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, advised her first to broaden her scientific education. She received her master’s degree from the University of Chicago where her thesis topic had been influenced by World War I and the German’s use of poisonous gas. She studied the adsorption of gases by coconut charcoal and thus improved the chemical structure of gas masks. Blodgett then went to work for GE at a time when it was almost impossible for women to get professional level jobs in corporations. With Langmuir’s support, she studied at Cambridge University under Nobel Laureate Sir Ernest Rutherford and became the first woman to earn a doctorate at Cambridge University in 1926. In 1938, Blodgett announced her invention of non-reflecting glass. This glass is now used in automobile windows, showcases, eyeglasses, picture frames, and submarine periscopes, in addition to cameras and optical equipment – and solar panels. During World War II, she worked on plane wing deicing and invented a smoke screen that saved many lives in campaigns in North Africa and Italy. In 1947, she

Fig. 7  Katharine Blodgett. (Courtesy of Smithsonian Institution)

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invented an instrument to measure humidity in the upper atmosphere using weather balloons. Blodgett received awards and honorary degrees for her inventions. She was the first industrial scientist to win the Francis P.  Garvan Medal (1951) given by the American Chemical Society to honor American women for distinguished service in chemistry. She was posthumously inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame [4, 6, 18].

9 Mabel MacFerran Rockwell (1925–1981) Credited as possibly the first aeronautical engineer in the U.S., Mabel MacFerran Rockwell (Fig. 8) received her B.S. from MIT in 1925 and a B.S. from Stanford University in electrical engineering. Before World War II, she served as a technical assistant with the Southern California Edison Company, where she was a pioneer in the application of symmetrical components to transmission relay problems in power systems. Through this work, she made it easier to diagnose system malfunctions and to enhance the reliability of multiple-circuit lines. Rockwell then worked for the Metropolitan Water District in Southern California where she was a member of the team that designed the Colorado River Aqueduct’s power system and the only woman to participate in the creation of the electrical installations at the Hoover Dam (previously called the Boulder Dam). Later, Rockwell joined Lockheed Aircraft Corporation and worked to improve the manufacturing operations of aircraft. Her many innovations included refining Fig. 8  Mabel MacFerran Rockwell. (Courtesy Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University)

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the process of spotwelding and developing techniques for maintaining cleaner working surfaces so that the welds completely fused. After the war, Rockwell went to work for Westinghouse where she designed the electrical control system for the Polaris missile launcher. At Conair, she developed the launching and ground controls for the Atlas guided missile systems. In 1958, President Eisenhower named her Woman Engineer of the year. Also in 1958, she received SWE’s Achievement Award “in recognition of her significant contributions to the field of electrical control systems.” [13, 19].

10 Maria Telkes (1900–1995) A celebrated innovator in the field of solar energy, one of the first people to research practical ways for humans to use solar energy, and the so-called “Sun Queen”, Maria Telkes was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1900 [20–22]. She built her first chemistry laboratory when she was ten years old [23]. Educated at Budapest University as a physical chemist (B.A. in 1920 and Ph.D. in 1924), she became interested in solar energy as early as her freshman year in college when she read a book titled Energy Sources of the Future by Kornel Zelowitch, which described experiments with solar energy that were taking place, primarily in the U.S [23]. Telkes served as an instructor at Budapest University after receiving her Ph.D. Her life changed significantly, however, when she traveled to Cleveland, Ohio to visit her uncle who was the Hungarian consul. During her visit, she was offered a position as a biophysicist at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in 1925, working with American surgeon George Washington Crile. During the time (1925–1937) that she was at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, she worked to create a photoelectric device to record brain waves [13, 22, 24]. She and Crile collaborated in writing a book titled Phenomenon of Life to report their findings. Her other work at the Foundation included looking at the source of the energy in brain waves, what happened to that energy when a cell dies, and the changes that occur when a normal cell becomes a cancer cell [21]. She spent her entire professional career in the U.S [13]. In 1937, the same year she became a naturalized citizen, Telkes moved to Westinghouse Electric where for 2 years she developed and patented instruments for converting heat energy into electrical energy, so-called thermoelectric devices [13, 21, 22, 24]. In 1939, she began her work with solar energy as part of the Solar Energy Conversion Project at MIT. Initially, her role was working on thermoelectric devices that were powered by sunlight. During World War II, Telkes served as a civilian advisor to the U.S. Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) where she was asked to figure out how to develop a device to convert saltwater into drinking water [21, 24]. This assignment resulted in one of her most important inventions, a solar distiller that vaporized seawater and then recondensed it into drinkable water. Its significant advancement used solar energy (sunlight) to heat the seawater so that the salt was separated from the water [21, 24]. This distillation device (also referred to as a solar

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still – Fig. 9) was included in the military’s emergency medical kits on life rafts and saved the lives of both downed airmen and torpedoed sailors. It could provide one quart of fresh water daily through the use of a clear plastic film and the heat of the sun and was perfect for use in warm, humid, tropical environments [13, 20, 23, 25, 26]. Later, the distillation device was scaled up and used to supplement the water demands of the Virgin Islands [24]. For her work, Telkes received the OSRD Certificate of Merit in 1945 [21].

Fig. 9  Patent 3,415,719 Page 1 – Maria Telkes Patent for Collapsible Solar Still with Water Vapor Permeable Membrane

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Telkes was named an associate research professor in metallurgy at MIT in 1945 [24]. During her years at MIT, she created a new type of solar heating system – one that converted the solar energy to chemical energy through the crystallization of a sodium sulfate solution (Glauber’s salt). Previous systems had stored the solar energy in the form of hot water or heated rocks [13, 21]. In 1948, Telkes and architect Eleanor Raymond developed a prototype five-room home built in Dover, Massachusetts [13, 23]. Called the Dover Sun House, this was the world’s first modern residence heated with solar energy and it used Telkes’s solar heating system [21, 24, 25]. The system was both efficient and cost-effective. It effectively heated the house during cold Massachusetts winters and cooled the house during the summer months. Solar collectors captured sunlight and warmed the air between double layers of glass and a black sheet of metal. That warmed air was then piped into the walls of the house, where it transferred the heat to the sodium sulfate to be stored and used at a later needed time. Thus, the walls of the house became the home’s heating system [21, 24]. She next spent 5 years (1953–1958) at New York University (NYU) as a solar energy researcher. At NYU, Telkes established a laboratory dedicated to solar energy research and continued working on solar stills, heating systems, and solar ovens [13, 20]. Her solar ovens proved to be cheap to make, simple and easy to build and could be used by villagers worldwide. Children could use them and the ovens could be used for any type of cuisine. Tests of the oven showed that it reached 350 °F even when the temperatures outside were in the 60s. This meant the oven could bake bread or cook a roast. Her work also led her to the discovery of a faster way to dry crops. In 1954, she received a $45,000 grant from the Ford Foundation to further develop her solar ovens [10, 26]. After NYU, she worked for Curtis-Wright Company as director of research for their solar energy laboratory (1958–1961). Here, she worked on solar dryers as well as the possible use of solar thermoelectric systems in outer space. She also designed the heating and energy storage systems for a laboratory building constructed by her employer in Princeton, New Jersey. This building included solar-heated rooms, a swimming pool, laboratories, solar water heaters, dryers for fruits and vegetables and solar cooking stoves [21, 23]. In 1961, she moved to Cryo-Therm where she spent two years as a researcher working on space-proof and sea-proof materials for use in protecting sensitive equipment from the temperature extremes that would be experienced in those environments. Her work at Cryo-Therm was used on both the Apollo and Polaris projects [13, 20]. Subsequently, she served as the director of Melpar, Inc.’s solar energy laboratory looking at obtaining freshwater from seawater (1963–1969) before returning to academia at the University of Delaware. At the University of Delaware, Telkes served as a professor and research director for the Institute of Energy Conversion (1969–1977) and emerita professor from 1978. Here she worked on materials used to store solar energy as well as heat exchangers that could efficiently transfer energy. The experimental solar-heated building constructed at the University of Delaware, known as Solar One, used her methods. In addition, she researched

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air-conditioning systems that could store coolness during the night to be used during the heat of the following day [13, 20–22]. After her retirement, she continued to serve as a consultant on solar energy matters. In 1980, after the 1970s oil crisis and a renewed interest nationwide in solar energy, Telkes was involved with a second experimental solar-heated house, the Carlisle House, which was built in Carlisle, Massachusetts. The home had a solar photovoltaic array on the roof to produce electricity, extensive passive solar features to provide space heating, thermal collectors to provide domestic hot water, and many energy conservation measures to reduce electrical and thermal energy requirements [20, 27]. In 1952, Telkes was the first recipient of SWE’s Achievement Award (Fig. 10). The citation reads “In recognition of her meritorius contributions to the utilization of solar energy [23].” In 1977, she received the Charles Greely Abbot Award from the American Section of the International Solar Energy Society which was in recognition of her being one of the world’s foremost pioneers in the field of solar energy [20]. In that same year, she was honored by the National Academy of Sciences Building Research Advisory Board for her work in solar-heated building technology. She was a member of SWE, the American Chemical Society, the Electrochemistry

Fig. 10  Maria Telkes (third from left) receives the first Society of Women Engineers Achievement Award during the 1952 American Society of Civil Engineers Centennial of Engineering in Chicago, Illinois. (l to r) Rodney Chipp, Beatrice Hicks, Maria Telkes, unknown, Dot Merrill, unknown. (Courtesy Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University)

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Society and Sigma Xi (Scientific Research Society). The holder of more than 20 patents (shown in Table 1), in 2012, Telkes was inducted into the National Inventors Table 1  Maria Telkes Patents – Issued by U.S. Patent and Trademark Office U.S. Patent Number 2,229,481 2,229,482 2,246,329 2,289,152 2,366,881 2,595,905 2,677,243 2,677,367 2,677,664 2,808,494 2,856,506 2,915,397 2,936,741 2,989,856 3,206,892 3,248,464 3,270,515 3,415,719 3,440,130 3,695,903 3,986,969 4,010,620 4,011,190 4,034,736 4,187,189 4,250,866 4,954,278

Date January 21, 1941 January 21, 1941 June 17, 1941 July 7, 1942 January 9, 1945 May 6, 1952 May 4, 1954 May 4, 1954 May 4, 1954 October 1, 1957 October 14, 1958 December 1, 1959 May 17, 1960 June 27, 1961 September 21, 1965 April 26, 1966 September 6, 1966 December 10, 1968 April 22, 1969 October 3, 1972 October 19, 1976 March 8, 1977 March 8, 1977 July 12, 1977 February 5, 1980 February 17, 1981 September 4, 1990

Title of patent Thermoelectric couple Thermoelectric couple Heat absorber Method of assembling thermo-electric generators Thermoelectric alloys Radiant energy heat transfer device Method and apparatus for the storage of heat Heat storage unit Composition of matter for the storage of heat Apparatus for storing and releasing heat Method for storing and releasing heat Cooking device and method Temperature stabilized fluid heater and a composition of matter for the storage of heat therefor Temperature stabilized container and materials therefor Collapsible cold frame Method and apparatus for making large celled material Dew collecting method and apparatus Collapsible solar still with water vapor permeable membrane Large celled material Time/temperature indicators Thixotropic mixture and making of same Cooling system Selective black for absorption of solar energy Solar heating method and apparatus Phase change thermal storage materials with crust forming stabilizers Thermal energy storage to increase furnace efficiency Eutectic composition for coolness storage

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Hall of Fame [23, 25]. In addition to her patents, Telkes also had many publications on the topics of using the sunlight for heating, thermoelectric/solar generators and distillers, and the electrical conductivity properties of solid electrolytes [25]. She believed so strongly in using solar energy that she said, “Sunlight will be used as a source of energy sooner or later … Why wait [26]?”

11 Ruth Clusen (1922–2005) We speak dry words at times, but if one has eyes to see and the mind to perceive that what we are working for is the quality of our environment in this and the next generation, one cannot but feel a quickening of the senses.

Ruth Clusen served as the Assistant Secretary of Energy for the Environment in the Department of Energy under President Jimmy Carter (1978–1981). This role was a result of her many years of service in the League of Women Voters (LWV) including president of the National LWV from 1974 to 1978. During her term as president she worked to assure the passage of the 1974 Safe Drinking Water Act. She had led LWV national environmental activities for 8 years (1966–74). In a 2001 Conservation Hall of Fame interview, Clusen noted that her concerns about the environment, especially water pollution, came about because of Green Bay’s water quality problems. During her national presidency, the League also promoted a common-sense conservation measure. The group advocated recycling and educated communities about source separation of solid waste. As Assistant Secretary of Energy, Clusen worked to develop and implement a strong National Energy Policy. Clusen’s office also worked on further reducing energy consumption by using synfuel technology and biomass conversion. Her office also had prime responsibility for overseeing governmental research on global warming caused by increased amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere [28].

12 Annie Easley (1933–2011) Computer scientist Annie Easley (Fig. 11) spent 34 years at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. She developed and implemented code used in researching energy-conversion systems, analyzing alternative power technologies—including the battery technology that was used for early hybrid vehicles, as well as for the Centaur upper-stage rocket. Following the energy crisis of the late 1970s Easley studied the economic advantages of co-generating power plants that obtained byproducts from coal and steam. In 2015, Easley was posthumously inducted into NASA’s Glenn Research Center Hall of Fame. On February 1, 2021, a crater on the moon was named after her [29, 30].

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Fig. 11  Annie Easley. (Courtesy NASA)

13 Hazel Reid O’Leary (1937–) Hazel O’Leary (Fig. 12) was the seventh United States Secretary of Energy, from 1993 to 1997, appointed by President Bill Clinton. She was the first woman and first African American to hold the position. While reducing the size of the department overall, O’Leary shifted resources toward efficient and renewable energy sources, a priority of the Clinton administration. Her efforts to increase energy efficiency of appliances led her to create partnerships with non-profit organizations and appliance manufacturers and resulted in the commercialization of energy efficient appliances. She supported research and development (R & D) of solar, wind, vehicles

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Fig. 12  Hazel R. O’Leary. (Courtesy Wikipedia)

and building energy efficient technologies by increasing the funding directed toward that type of R & D. And she brought strategic planning to the U.S. Department of Energy. Her first such strategic plan envisioned an all-of-the-above approach that included development of renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies as well as the continued environmentally and economically sound use of fossil fuels [31, 32].

14 Barbara Farhar (1938–) Sustainable energy sociologist Dr. Barbara C.  Farhar pioneered in the areas of renewable and sustainable energy policy development. Her research concerned the interaction between technology and society and how innovations diffused into society. After earning her PhD in sociology from the University of Colorado at Boulder, Farhar began her career in the energy industry joining the Solar Energy Research Institute (today the National Renewable Energy Laboratory). There she became known nationally for her work on the human dimensions of energy efficiency and renewable energy. When studying high performance homes, she found that homeowners became increasingly satisfied with energy-efficient products when they were able to monitor the resulting decrease in energy consumption. She also studied geothermal resources on federal lands and Native American interest in geothermal energy. While she worked for the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute at the University of Colorado at Boulder, she was the principal investigator of a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle study in a smart-grid environment. Over the course of her career, Dr. Farhar produced more than 250 publications on topics including the relevance of behavioral analysis to energy policy, public

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opinion about energy and environmental policy, societal response to weather modification technologies, and gender and energy. She served on the boards of the American Solar Energy Society and the Colorado Renewable Energy Society [33, 34].

15 Omi G. Walden (1945–2021) Omi Walden spent her career as a public affairs and government relations specialist. She was appointed Assistant Secretary Conservation & Solar Applications for the United States Department Energy, 1978–1979, and Advisory to Secretary Conservation & Solar Marketing, 1979–1980, in the Carter Administration. She was a pioneer in renewable energy development. Her many other governmental positions included Federal & State relations coordinator, policy advisor energy & environmental issues, Former Governors Jimmy Carter and George Busbee, Atlanta, 1973–1976; Director Georgia Office of Energy Resources, Atlanta, 1976–1978; Governor representative to President Intergovernmental Science, Engineering & Technology Advisory Panel, 1978; and Executive Director, National Energy Management Institute [35].

16 Esther Sans Takeuchi (1953–) Electrochemist Esther Sans Takeuchi (Fig. 13) has worked for many years on batteries. Her current research focus is related to next generation primary and secondary battery applications demanding long life, high energy density and high power. Such batteries could prove useful to energy storage associated with renewable energy resources as well as electric vehicles. These applications will require new strategies for the rational design of electroactive materials and the concomitant engineering associated with battery design. A member of the National Academy of Engineering, Takeuchi received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation in 2008 “For her seminal development of the silver vanadium oxide battery that powers the majority of the world’s lifesaving implantable cardiac defibrillators, and her innovation in other medical battery technologies that improve the health and quality of life of millions of people.” Takeuchi has been inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame [36–38].

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Fig. 13  Esther Takeuchi. (Courtesy Brookhaven National Laboratory)

Fig. 14  Linda Stuntz. (Courtesy Wikipedia)

17 Linda Stuntz (1954–) Linda Stuntz (Fig. 14) served as deputy secretary of the United States Department of Energy under President George H.W.  Bush. Her focus during her time at the Department of Energy was on issues related to global climate change and energy-­ related measures to minimize greenhouse gas emissions. In that position, and in other senior policy positions at the Department between 1989 and 1993, she played a principal role in the development and enactment of the Energy Policy Act of 1992.

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The Act focused on increasing the use of clean and renewable energy in the United States as well as promoting energy conservation in buildings and working to increase the energy efficiency of appliances [39–41].

18 Olga González-Sanabria (1956?–) When Olga González-Sanabria (Fig. 15) graduated in chemical engineering from the University of Puerto Rico in 1979, she was one of the very few women studying engineering at that institution. González-Sanabria loved chemistry and math while she was growing up in Patillas, Puerto Rico. With those interests already in focus, she was inspired to study engineering while in high school because she wanted to help solve the energy crisis. After receiving her bachelor’s degree, she went to work for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) at the Glenn Research Center in 1979. There she researched energy storage technologies for space. Along the way, she earned her master’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Toledo. During her 32-year career at NASA, González-Sanabria distinguished herself in many ways. She was the highest-ranking Hispanic at the Center. She played an instrumental role in the development of the Long Cycle-Life Nickel-Hydrogen Batteries that became the power source for the International Space Station. Her team significantly improved the separators in the battery thereby isolating oxidation and reducing voltage losses. The battery she helped develop can run on average 40,000 cycles and last for 10–15 years. She and her team received an R & D 100 award for that invention. González-Sanabria served as Executive Officer of the Center starting in 1995. She later headed the Plans and Programs Office, was appointed to the Senior Fig. 15  Olga Olga González-Sanabria. (Courtesy NASA)

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Executive Service (first Latina in that role), Director of Engineering and Technical Services, and Director of the Engineering Directorate. She retired in December 2011 with 32  years of NASA Service and started her own company, GS Matrix Consulting LLC. A passionate mentor for encouraging young women to enter the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, González-Sanabria has received many awards. She has been inducted into the Ohio Women’s Hall of Fame, and has received the Women of Color in Technology Career Achievement Award, the YWCA Women of Achievement Award and the Presidential Rank of Meritorious Executive among others. In 2021, she was inducted into the NASA Glenn Research Center Hall of Fame [42–44].

19 Kristina Johnson (1957–) Inducted into the National Inventor’s Hall of Fame in 2015, Dr. Kristina Johnson (Fig. 16) is the president of The Ohio State University. She previously served as Chancellor of the State University of New  York where she partnered with the New York Power Authority to develop a clean energy roadmap for SUNY, with a goal to procure 100% renewable electricity by 2023. Dr. Johnson assumed the leadership position at SUNY after time in the private sector. Prior to her role at SUNY, Dr. Johnson was CEO of Enduring Hydro and its predecessor company Cube Hydro Partners (which she co-founded), a company that acquires and modernizes hydroelectric facilities and develops power at unpowered Fig. 16  Kristina Johnson. (Courtesy Wikipedia)

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dams. Prior to Cube Hydro Partners, Johnson served as Under Secretary of Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy. As Under Secretary, Dr. Johnson was responsible for unifying and managing a broad $10.5 billion Energy and Environment portfolio, including an additional $37 billion in energy and environment investments from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). Prior to joining the Department of Energy, Dr. Johnson served as Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Johns Hopkins University, the largest research university in the U.S. From 1999 to 2007, Dr. Johnson was Dean of the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University, the first woman to serve in that position. Before joining Duke University, Dr. Johnson served as a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Colorado at Boulder, where she was a leader in interdisciplinary research on optoelectronics, a field that melds light with electronics. In addition to her academic career, Johnson is an inventor and entrepreneur, holding more than 45 U.S. patents (129 U.S. and international patents) in the areas of birefringent polymer stacks, color polarizers, and high-definition color display systems; liquid crystal on silicon displays and optoelectronic light engines; and wavelength division multiplexing, optical networks and tunable optical filters. She is the co-founder of several successful companies including renewable energy companies Cube Hydro Partners and Enduring Hydro. Johnson has received numerous recognitions for her contributions to the field of engineering, entrepreneurship and innovation, including the John Fritz Medal, considered the highest award made in the engineering profession [45–47].

20 Julie A. Keil (1957–2015) Julie Keil was honored and revered in the hydropower community for her passionate efforts to balance the interests of that community with innovative environmental protection and enhancement programs. Keil earned an undergraduate degree in history and then obtained her law degree. She spent 28  years at Portland General Electric (PGE), the last twenty-two as Director of Hydro Relicensing. During her time at PGE, she obtained settlements to relicense three of four PGE hydro projects and to remove a project from the Sandy River. She served on the boards of several organizations and worked to promote hydropower as a steward of the nation’s water resources. In addition to her service as President of the National Hydropower Association, Keil received the Henwood Award, the highest award bestowed by the hydro industry. The Northwest Hydroelectric Association awards a scholarship annually established in her memory [48, 49].

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References 1. Ogilvie, M.B.: Women in Science: Antiquity Through the Nineteenth Century, a Biographical Dictionary with Annotated Bibliography. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA (1993) 2. Ronan, C.A.: Science: Its History and Development Among the World’s Cultures. The Hamlyn Publishing Group Limited, New York (1982) 3. Suplee, C.: Milestones of Science. National Geographic, Washington, DC (2000) 4. Proffitt, P. (ed.): Notable Women Scientists. The Gale Group, Detroit (1999) 5. A Dictionary of Scientists, Oxford University Press, Oxford (1999) 6. Shearer, B.H.S., Shearer, B.S. (eds.): Notable Women in the Physical Sciences: A Biographical Dictionary. Greenwood Press, Westport (1997) 7. Bailey, M.J.: American Women in Science: A Biographical Dictionary. ABC-CLIO, Denver (1994) 8. Arnold, L.B.: Four Lives in Science: Women’s Education in the Nineteenth Century. Schocken Books, New York (1984) 9. Alic, M.: Hypatia’s Heritage: A History of Women in Science from Antiquity Through the Nineteenth Century. Beacon Press, Boston (1986) 10. Morrow, C., Perl, T. (eds.): Notable Women in Mathematics: A Biographical Dictionary. Greenwood Press, Westport (1998) 11. Meade, J.: Ahead of Their Time. In: Margaret E.  Layne, P.E. (ed.) Women in Engineering: Pioneers and Trailblazers. ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers) Press, Reston (2009) 12. Letizia, A.: Bertha Lamme: Pioneering Westinghouse Engineer. http://www.geekpittsburgh. com/innovation/bertha-­lamme, October 26, 2015 13. Ogilvie, M., Harvey, J. (eds.): The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: Pioneering Lives from Ancient Times to the Mid-20th Century. Routledge, New York (2000) 14. Hatch, S.E.: Changing Our World: True Stories of Women Engineers. ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers) Press, Reston (2006) 15. Goff, A.C.: Women Can Be Engineers. Edwards Brothers, Inc., Ann Arbor (1946) 16. Ingels, M.: Petticoats and Slide Rules. Western Society of Engineers, September 4, 1952 17. National Inventors Hall of Fame, Edith Clarke. https://www.invent.org/inductees/edith-­clarke. Accessed 30 Nov 2018 18. Your Power: Your Community, March 9, 2022, Women’s History Month: Moving the Energy Industry Forward. https://news.jacksonemc.com/womens-­history-­month-­moving-­the-­energy-­ industry-­forward. Accessed 26 July 2022 19. Society of Women Engineers, Historical Record of Policy and Interpretation, in Jill Tietjen’s possession, approved November 7, 1990 20. Telkes, M.: The Telkes Solar Cooker. https://lemelson.mit.edu/resources/maria-­telkes. Accessed 1 Dec 2018 21. Telkes, M. https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-­almanacs-­transcripts-­and-­ maps/telkes-­maria. Accessed 1 Dec 2018 22. Telkes, M.: Preliminary Inventory of the Maria Telkes Papers 1893–2000 (Bulk 1950s–1980s). http://www.azarchivesonline.org/xtf/view?docId=ead/asu/telkes_acc.xml. Accessed 1 Dec 2018 23. Society of Women Engineers  – Philadelphia Section, Maria Telkes. http://philadelphia.swe. org/hall-­of-­fame-­m%2D%2D-­z.html. Accessed 30 Nov 2018 24. Rafferty, J.P., Telkes, M.: American Physical Chemist and Biophysicist. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Maria-­Telkes. Accessed 30 Nov 2018 25. National Inventors Hall of Fame, Maria Telkes. https://www.invent.org/inductees/maria-­telkes. Accessed 30 Nov 2018 26. Boyd, A.: Engines of Our Ingenuity: No. 2608, Maria Telkes. https://www.uh.edu/engines/ epi2608.htm. Accessed 1 Dec 2018 27. Nichols, B.E., Strong, S.J.: The Carlisle House: An All-Solar Electric Residence. ­DOE/ ET/20279-133

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28. Wisconsin Conservation Hall of Fame, Ruth Clusen 1922–2005, Inducted 2002. https://wchf. org/ruth-­clusen/. Accessed 28 Jan 2022 29. NASA, Annie Easley, Computer Scientist, September 21, 2015. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/ annie-­easley-­computer-­scientist. Accessed 28 Jan 2022 30. Annie Easley. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie_Easley. Accessed 28 Jan 2022 31. Hazel R. O’Leary. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hazel_R._O%27Leary. Accessed 28 Jan 2022 32. Bittner, Drew, U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Women @ Energy – Secretary Hazel O’Leary, March 17, 2016. Accessed 26 Sept 2022 33. Dr. Barbara C. Farhar. www.barbarafarhar.com. Accessed 4 July 2022 34. Barbara Farhar. https://www.linkedin.com/in/barbarafarhar/. Accessed 4 July 2022 35. Omi Gail Walden, 1945–2021, Obituary. https://www.crosbyfuneralhome.com/obituary/omi-­ walden. Accessed 28 Jan 2022 36. Esther Takeuchi. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esther_Takeuchi. Accessed 31 Jan 2022 37. Esther Takeuchi, Distinguished Professor. https://www.stonybrook.edu/commcms/matscieng/ people/_core/esther_takeuchi. Accessed 31 Jan 2022 38. National Science & Technology Medals Foundation, Esther Sans Takeuchi: National Medal of Technology and Innovation – Medicine (2008). https://nationalmedals.org/laureate/esther-­ sans-­takeuchi/. Accessed 20 Apr 2022 39. CSIS, Center for Strategic & International Studies, Linda Stuntz, Senior Advisory (non-­ resident), Energy Security and Climate Change Program. https://www.csis.org/people/linda-­ stuntz. Accessed 28 Jan 2022 40. Edison International, Meet Our Board of Directors, Linda G.  Stuntz. https://www.edison. com/home/investors/corporate-­governance/meet-­our-­board-­of-­directors/linda-­g-­stuntz.html. Accessed 28 Jan 2022 41. Energy Policy Act of 1992. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Policy_Act_of_1992. Accessed 26 Sept 2022 42. Custom Power Systems, Mothers of Invention: Olga D. González-Sanabria, March 13, 2022. https://custom-­powder.com/mothers-­of-­invention-­olga-­d-­gonzalez-­sanabria/. Accessed 26 Sept 2022 43. Olga D.  González-Sanabria. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olga_D._Gonz%C3%A1lez-­ Sanabria. Accessed 26 July 2022 44. Olga González-Sanabria. Glenn Research Center Hall of Fame 2021 Inductee – Biography. https://www1.grc.nasa.gov/glenn-­history/hall-­of-­fame/biographies/olga-­gonzalez-­sanabria/. Accessed 26 Sept 2022 45. The Ohio State University, Office of the President, About the President, Kristina M. Johnson, PhD. https://president.osu.edu/about-­president-­johnson. Accessed 23 Jan 2022 46. National Inventors Hall of Fame, Kristina M.  Johnson. http://invent.org/inductees/johnson-­ kristina/. Accessed 6 June 2015 47. Unpublished nomination in the files of Jill Tietjen 48. Hydropower Foundation, Julie A. Keil Women in Hydro Scholarship Fund. https://www.hydrofoundation.org/julie-­a-­keil-­women-­in-­hydro-­scholarship-­fund.html. Accessed 31 Jan 2022 49. International Water Power & Dam Construction, US hydro industry mourns death of Julie Keil. https://www.waterpowermagazine.com/news/newsus-­hydro-­industry-­mourns-­death-­of-­ julie-­keil-­4744194. Accessed 31 Jan 2022

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Jill S. Tietjen, P.E., entered the University of Virginia in the Fall of 1972 (the third year that women were admitted as undergraduates after a suit was filed in court by women seeking admission) intending to be a mathematics major. But midway through her first semester, she found engineering and made all of the arrangements necessary to transfer. In 1976, she graduated with a B.S. in Applied Mathematics (minor in Electrical Engineering) (Tau Beta Pi, Virginia Alpha) and went to work in the electric utility industry. Galvanized by the fact that no one, not even her Ph.D. engineer father, had encouraged her to pursue an engineering education and that only after her graduation did she discover that her degree was not ABET-accredited, she joined the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) and for more than 40 years has worked to encourage young women to pursue science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) careers. In 1982, she became licensed as a professional engineer in Colorado. Tietjen started working jigsaw puzzles at age two and has always loved to solve problems. She derives tremendous satisfaction seeing the result of her work – the electricity product that is so reliable that most Americans just take its provision for granted. Flying at night and seeing the lights below, she knows that she had a hand in this infrastructure miracle. An expert witness, she works to plan new power plants. Her efforts to nominate women for awards began in SWE and have progressed to her acknowledgement as one of the top nominators of women in the country. Her nominees have received the National Medal of Technology and the Kate Gleason Medal; they have been inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame and state Halls including Colorado, Maryland and Delaware; and have received university and professional society recognition. Tietjen believes that it is imperative to nominate women for awards – for the role modeling and knowledge of women’s accomplishments that it provides for the youth of our country. Tietjen received her MBA from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She has been the recipient of many awards including the Distinguished Service Award from SWE (of which she has been named a Fellow and is a National Past President), the Distinguished Alumna Award from the University of Virginia, and the Distinguished Alumna Award from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She has been inducted into the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame, the Colorado Authors’ Hall of Fame, and the National Academy of Construction. Tietjen sits on the board of Georgia Transmission Corporation and served for eleven years on the board of Merrick & Company. Her publications include the bestselling and award-­winning book Her Story: A Timeline of the Women Who Changed America for which she received the Daughters of the American Revolution History Award Medal and Hollywood: Her Story, An Illustrated History of Women and the Movies which has received numerous awards. Her award-winning book Over, Under, Around and Through: How Hall of Famers Surmount Obstacles was released in 2022.

Are Electricity Customers Ready for a Renewables-Based Grid? Jane Peters

Imagine it is 2050, a time when renewables make up at least 20–30% of electricity generation in the United States. That scenario is near-term in Australia where renewable generation was 24% in 2020 and was superseded in Germany in 2020 with over 50% of power from renewables [2, 48]. Utility scale renewables are expected to account for much of the increase in renewable generation in the United States by 2050, yet 20% or more, depending on policy, will be small-scale renewable systems on residential and commercial buildings [14]. Terms for the New Energy Future Consumer: someone who relies solely on their local electric distribution utility network for kWh used. Prosumer: someone who has invested in distributed generation such as solar or wind and is now a net producer of kWh, selling some back to the distribution network. Prosumager: someone who, in addition to distributed generation has invested in distributed energy storage and can now manage their consumption and generation. Off-Grid or Nosumer: someone who, through their distributed energy investments, no longer relies on the local electric distribution network for kWh used nor sells any to the grid [45].

Imagine being one of the households or businesses with a large solar array and a battery storage system. You can be a prosumer and use most of your generation by J. Peters (*) Jane S. Peters Advising, Portland, OR, USA e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 K. T. Wang, J. S. Tietjen (eds.), Women in Renewable Energy, Women in Engineering and Science, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-28543-1_2

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storing it in your batteries and your electric vehicle and then accessing the stored electricity when the sun is not shining. Since you often might generate more electricity than you can use, rather than store it all for your own use, you could feed it back into the grid or sell it to neighbors as a prosumager. There are many questions electricity users will face when they have this type of distributed generation and storage: Does your local distribution utility want your electricity? Is the utility willing to pay something for it? Is there a way to get more return from selling it than from using it yourself? What about your neighbors, can you sell some of the excess generation to them? What if you invest in more energy efficient appliances; can you have more excess generation to sell to someone? Will you make more money selling the generation than it costs to make your home more efficient? What tradeoffs are you willing to make? Are you interested in spending the time to learn how to do this and the effort to execute this? What if someone offers you free electricity if you let them manage your battery and solar system; would that be attractive? How much electricity do you want to use, and when do you feel you have enough? These questions will confront some electricity customers on the renewables-­ based electric grid. Similarly, electric utilities and their commissions are confronting questions of who will get the benefits from the renewables-based grid. Some decision makers are questioning whether the benefits will be distributed fairly and which consumers and businesses, if any, should receive a benefit for taking action to change how much energy they require, or demand from the grid. The year 2050 is less than 30  years from the time I am writing this. Already, households in the United States and Australia are facing these questions, though customer options are still limited. A wide range of pilots and efforts to explore these questions will dominate much of the program planning and design process, as well as regulatory sessions, over these next 30 years so that by 2050, the path forward will be clearer. Currently, engineers and economists are key players in this planning. As a behavioral scientist with 40 years’ experience encouraging the transition away from fossil fuels, I know there is a lot of opportunity to ensure this transition to a renewables-based grid works well. Behavioral scientists have a role to play if these opportunities are to be achieved. In this chapter, I touch on the various new technologies that are part of this change and explore the role electricity customers will play to support the renewables-­ based grid. I discuss what we have learned over the last 40 years about how electricity customers respond to new technologies and how they are responding to these newest technologies. I conclude by offering some thoughts about the opportunities for behavioral scientists to support this transition to a renewables-based grid.

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1 Demand-Related Characteristics of a Renewables-Based Grid This section discusses some of the technologies and demand-side changes that will be important in a renewables-based grid. First to consider are the variety of primarily digital technologies, that I will elaborate below, change the way customers use electricity. Second is a requirement for flexibility in the use of electricity that can be in tune with the changing generation system and its dependence on variable electricity generation from renewable sources.

1.1 Technologies That Affect How Consumers Use Electricity Traditionally electricity is delivered through a distribution system of utility managed power lines that attach to a building through a meter. The meter counts how much electricity is going to the building. In front-of-the-meter (FTM), the utility company is responsible for ensuring the electricity gets to the buildings; behind-the-­ meter (BTM) the consumer manages how they use the electricity. The utility company is thus responsible for supplying electricity to the building and the customer’s electricity use places a demand on the utility system. Advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) is of key importance to the future grid. The colloquial term for AMI is “smart meters.” AMI uses digital (hence “smart”) meters that record energy consumption at very small intervals, a minute or second. The data generated are typically analyzed and preserved at larger intervals, such as hourly or daily, due to the huge amount of data generated by the meters. Some smart meter configurations count energy going into the meter from both directions, energy both generated and distributed FTM and generated and distributed BTM, heading back to the grid. AMI deployment in the United States began in earnest in 2009; AMI comprised 88% of all meters installed in 2021 in the United States AMI [15, 44], and installations are continuing. Smart meters make a renewable grid future possible by enabling the customer and the utility to know the amount of energy flowing in each direction instantaneously. The energy can be valued in comparison to its supply cost instantaneously as well. Smart meters also enable utilities to use electronic signals to control energy flows at the meter. These two factors make AMI essential to the renewable grid. A variety of other modern technologies also have the potential to change the relationship between the customer and the utility. Distributed generation, in the form of solar photovoltaic panels and small-scale wind turbines have enabled consumers to generate their own electricity and potentially to sell excess electricity back into the distribution grid. Customers are also finding energy storage increasingly affordable. Some customers are investing in battery storage to go with their solar energy systems; electric hot water tanks can provide thermal storage.

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As electric batteries have become more affordable, so too have battery electric vehicles (BEVs). In 2022, most manufacturers only permit BEVs to take electricity from the grid to refuel the car’s battery. Soon, manufacturers will allow vehicle-to-­ grid-to-vehicle (V2G2) technology, enabling households and businesses to use their BEV battery for storage. With sufficient battery storage of any type, customers can power their homes and businesses when there is a grid outage, or draw electricity from the grid at low-cost times, store it, and draw from their batteries at higher cost times. Computers at the beginning of the 1970s were large bulky mainframes. Even in the 1980s, the smaller portable computers jokingly called ‘a luggable’ were anything but easy to use and carry. The advances that took computing from bulky mainframes to much more powerful wearable devices has made possible the Internet of Things (IOT), whereby a whole host of gadgets and appliances talk to each other and to companies over the internet. Smarter devices of all types are coming: smart refrigerators, stoves, water heaters, furnaces, air conditioners, thermostats, doorbells, and lights; even smart clothes and smart sheets that sense whether you are cold or hot, etc. Digitization can aid the management of the device by the device itself, such as enabling a variable speed drive on a furnace to adjust the motor and fan to keep a set temperature. With a short technological step, these smart energy devices may in the future adjust energy use in response to changing electricity price signals sent by the utility, also called prices-to-devices. Many of these devices can place significant load on the electric grid, yet when highly efficient and coordinated in their usage will draw less electric load than the standard equipment they replace. Utilities can through Wi-Fi connections adjust and control these devices, making them smart energy devices. For example, through a thermostat and Wi-Fi a utility can adjust heating and cooling equipment to meet utility load requirements and pay compensation to their customers who let them do this. Similarly, through Wi-Fi connections or direct-to-device energy pricing or grid signals, utilities will soon be able to automatically adjust or request that smart appliances such as water heaters and refrigerators change load during times of peak system demand, or when system costs are low or negative due to excess renewable energy production. Additional computing capabilities incorporated into electricity-using equipment coupled with two-way communication promises a degree of interactivity between customers and their electric distribution utility that has been impossible in the past. Whether and how soon customers will buy and use these smart energy devices, whether customers will allow their devices to interact with the grid and the utility and thus be managed by them, and what customers will expect from this interaction are unknown.

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1.2 Flexible Demand Using Rates or Programs The processes by which utilities “manage” their customers’ use of electricity as suggested above are varied and complex. Utilities can contract with customers to manage their equipment; third-party aggregators can work with customers helping them to respond to economic signals from the utilities about load adjustments needed. In return for changing how they use energy, customers get a payment. Economics, therefore, drives this process. Everyone pays for electricity, or is supposed to, and the price, rate, or incentive, influences how much electricity the customers use. Flexible demand is critical for a renewable-based grid because the output of renewable energy systems varies with ambient conditions. Energy storage can help ensure that sufficient electric energy is available at times when production is minimal. However, energy storage alone is a costly solution to variability. A potentially lower cost solution has customers adjusting their demand in response to grid conditions, combined with energy storage. Most equipment in the home or business is inflexible in its energy use. The refrigerator compressor responds to the temperature inside the refrigerator to keep the set temperature, irrespective of electricity cost. Flexible energy use, whereby the refrigerator cools in the hours ahead of and after a high price period, would reduce costs for both the customer and the distribution utility. A cost-effective renewables-­ based grid requires large equipment and end-use loads to become flexible. Smart technologies support this needed flexibility. Utilities, in turn, need to increasingly move to variable time-dependent pricing. But the path to that world is just coming into focus. Utilities have offered variable rates for over 40 years, but usually as pilots or as rates targeted to specific groups, such as interruptible rates offered to large industrial customers who agree to reduce their load such as by canceling a work shift on very hot summer days when electricity is very expensive. With the advent of smart thermostats and Wi-Fi enabled programmable thermostats, many utilities now offer an incentive to customers who allow the utility to adjust their thermostat when electricity is very expensive. This gives residential customers access to benefits similar to those of business customers on interruptible rates. The primary purchasers in 2022 of solar energy systems with battery storage are higher income households and environmentally motivated businesses. Some utilities have incentives and programs intended to increase access by households with more moderate levels of income, which have contributed to a more equitable uptake, but adopters continue to skew toward higher incomes [3]. Policies suggested by renewables advocates could increase equity. These policies include varying offered incentives based on income, encouraging leased systems, requiring investments in distributed energy by location on the grid (irrespective of demographic characteristics), or by opening the market to virtual power plants (VPP), which are customer-­ sited solar and battery systems managed by third-parties to supply energy when it has the highest value and replenish customer’s batteries when power is less expensive.

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Australian households are adopting solar at a higher rate than in the United States and by 2030 a projected 50% of households will have distributed solar energy systems, many with battery storage [46]. While the current distribution of solar in Australia also skews to the wealthy [4] efforts underway could change that. Two companies began in 2021 to offer customers free electricity for up to five years when they allow their solar and battery systems to be a VPP, with one of the companies offering to install a new solar and battery system and the other offering to manage existing systems [46]. Such offers will open distributed generation up to many more households, while also supporting flexible operation of the systems to support the grid. These offers lead to questions such as: Will participating households be satisfied with their electricity service? How will their satisfaction levels compare with those who paid for and operate their own systems?

2 Consumer Views of Renewables, Smart Energy Technologies and Demand Response The United States was seemingly awash in energy prior to the 1970s, when the first peak in oil production occurred [17]. The average US consumer never even considered the possibility that oil might run out or get more expensive or that conserving energy – which was so important during World War II – would ever be important again. In the 1970s few people in the general population or even in the electricity sector conceptualized the possibility of a renewables-based grid, and the wide range of digital and internet connected devices was only the stuff of science fiction. In contrast, by 2050 it is likely that the majority will be aware and comfortable with these technologies. In this section I explore public opinion and interest in renewables, smart technologies, and demand flexibility.

2.1 Renewables Have a Strong Appeal Public opinion polling in the United States started asking questions about support for renewable energy on the heels of the several energy crises that began with the 1973 Oil Embargo [32]. In 1980, Farhar et al. [23] in an exhaustive review of public opinion about energy, reported that there was clear positive support for renewable energy, solar energy, and energy conservation especially among those who perceived there to be an energy crisis. The support for investing in solar energy was greater than for investing in coal, oil, nuclear energy, natural gas, or wood. However, studies also confirmed that the public did not really know much about solar energy and other renewable energy sources. Farhar and Houston reported in 1996 [22] that support for renewable energy development was continuing and growing. They noted, “This pattern of public

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preference for the development and use of renewable energy continues a trend of some 18  years’ duration, one of the strongest patterns and longest-lasting trends observed in the entire data set on public preferences on energy and environmental policy.” (p. 3). [21] review of multiple studies by utilities and of national studies by organizations including the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) showed a “strong preference for renewables sources of electricity along with the majority willing to pay an incremental amount more for it” (p. 5). The public’s increasing interest in renewable energy as a long-term solution to energy needs in the United States has not abated, yet adoption by utilities for utility scale power or by residential and business consumers for end-use power grew much more slowly. Green power and green pricing programs, originated by utilities in the 1990s, provided a way for consumers to support renewable energy by opting to pay a premium to ensure that the distribution utility was supplying renewable energy in the grid mix. Sweezy and Bird [49] reported that over 80 utilities across 28 states offered or were preparing to offer voluntary green pricing programs, and utilities in 24 states offered competitive green power options. Most of these competitive programs were new, with adoption about 2%. Many of these programs did not survive the challenges of open markets that occurred first in California in 2001 [8, 52]. In 2022, 15 states have voluntary green pricing programs [10]. Most states and their utilities have shifted toward renewable portfolio standards (RPS) and clean energy standards (CES), which require utilities to buy renewable energy, and in some cases to only buy clean energy, by specified dates [10, 31]. Electricity customers have long considered renewable energy a good solution to energy and environmental problems that affect the United States. Believing that renewables are a good idea, however, has not always translated into policy or individual action. After a strong bipartisan effort to support energy independence during the Ford and Carter administrations, the 1980s saw reduced policy support and a split between the parties, with Republican support reduced. Yet invention and development continued. Solar cells, for example, produced electricity at $85/watt in 1975, at $5.50/watt in 1995, and at $.20/watt in 2020 [26]. Adoption increased as prices dropped and there was a steady increase in investment in solar both at the utility level and at the individual household and business level. Wind energy has followed a similar path of declining prices and increased adoption. This positive view of renewables, however, may not last. The MIT Energy Initiative conducted research and found public support is influenced by information on how policies for renewables affect jobs and utility costs, and by how much. The MIT research showed that messages about increased jobs or stable or declining utility bills could increase support for renewables, while messages about lack of new jobs or increased utility bills could decrease support [47]. As renewable energy has moved from novelty to mainstream policy, risks increase. As of 2022 there are 14 states that either have never had an RPS or CES or have let their RPS expire (National Conference of State Legislatures). There are many reasons to think support for renewable energy will continue to grow. It does create jobs in local communities and the levelized costs in 2022 for

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building solar, wind, and battery storage systems were either less expensive or comparable in cost to fossil fuel and nuclear power systems and are poised to become more cost competitive in the future [16]. Yet, policy occurs in a political environment and not all politicians support renewable resource development.

2.2 Consumers Are Attracted to Smart Energy Technologies Assessing consumer knowledge and interest in smart energy technologies and the smart meters associated with a renewable energy grid is important if adoption of these technologies is to occur and be useful to grid management. Retailers and manufacturers market many smart products based on their convenience and quality. Yet the energy community’s interest in these technologies derives from their ability to help a renewables-based grid. If consumers don’t understand how to use these smart technologies in ways that support the grid, the technologies could become liabilities. For example, electric cars can supply battery storage and EV owners can charge them at times when there is excess capacity on the grid, such as afternoons when there is plenty of solar energy or at night when most businesses and homes are at rest. However, if EV owners charge their cars in the late afternoon or evening after arriving home from work, this action will create a peak in power demand coincident with the setting sun. Such EV charging patterns would be a liability to the grid and do nothing to offset the serious problem of wind and solar energy variability. The field of social marketing developed to support the adoption of prosocial goods and behaviors that the market does not readily adopt. Health care, exercise, and energy efficiency are examples of prosocial goods and services. Starting with the 1970s, the energy efficiency community has marketed a wide variety of energy efficiency technologies, only one of which did not need marketing: microwave ovens. The microwave oven was such a good solution to so many challenges that consumers and businesses adopted them without consideration of their energy conserving feature. But other energy efficiency solutions have been slower to gain wide-spread acceptance, such as highly efficient heating and cooling equipment, insulation, and low-e windows. Another energy efficient technology that has strong appeal is LED lighting, but high cost limited initial adoption. While social marketing programs have slowly withdrawn from the market in the 2020s, they were important for much of the 10 years prior to their reduction. Smart energy technologies offer some features that are appealing outside of their benefits to the grid. Yet, the evidence suggests that several factors may slow adoption. Knowledge of smart technologies is one barrier. In 2016, when the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative (SECC) began conducting research on smart technologies, they found interest in the general idea of smart appliances and smart power storage [39]. Consumers, however, were concerned about cost and about losing control over when their appliances perform. Things such as whether food in the refrigerator will be cold or water hot when it is wanted at the tap are

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fundamental concerns. Interest in smart appliances has been growing, although concentrated in certain market segments, particularly among consumers with environmental motivations and those who are “tech savvy.” These types of consumers make up just under 50% of all consumers [40]. SECC sought to assess how many consumers have smart devices in 2021. The most common were: smart speakers, smart thermostats, smart large appliances, smart plugs, and smart lighting. About half (51%) owned at least one smart device; the most commonly owned device is smart speakers (37%), with 27% owning a smart thermostat and 18% owning a smart appliance. Consumers who own one smart device are likely to have two or three, and these consumers are likely to be younger (most are under 55) and come from the two segments noted previously [43]. A question that SECC has asked in some studies concerns how important energy use is to consumer selection of appliances and space heating and cooling equipment. In 2015 88% responded that it is somewhat or very important to be energy efficient and that they have done all they can to lower their energy costs; but that does not mean that energy is top of mind. When asked about space heating and cooling, 56% agreed that it is more important to be comfortable than to be concerned about energy use [38]. SECC also examined consumers’ thoughts on the opportunity to electrify home appliances for cooking, space heating and cooling, and heating hot water. Overall, the study found consumers “clearly see the link between electrification and environmental, climate, cost safety and reliability benefits and are very open to the idea of transition to electricity to power their homes and transportation” ([42] p. 14). Yet this awareness does not lead to action. Many consumers are challenged by the higher cost of these products, followed by the concerns they would be less comfortable with smart and clean energy technologies, or that they would have less control [41]. Such concerns create barriers to adoption. Utilities addressed market concerns and accelerated adoption of energy efficiency technologies by offering various financial incentives and information services, supported by marketing campaigns highlighting their benefits and quality. Yet, adoption of energy efficiency technologies is still a slow process. Energy solutions are also out of reach of many consumers due to their limited income or because they rent rather than own the homes they live in. The opportunity to change household energy use is particularly limited for renters in multi-family buildings. Low- and moderate-income households have a much higher energy burden that limits their ability to invest in energy use improvements [9]. Two-thirds of low-income households spend 6% of their income on energy, while the average across all households in the United States is half that at 3%. This energy burden likewise will affect their adoption of smart technologies, despite findings that lower income consumers are even more interested in smart technologies than middle- and higher-income consumers [41].

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2.3 Demand Response and Variable Rates Are Still the “New” Idea Power engineers at the British electric power company National Grid watch television every evening to know when the grid is going to need a boost [27]. This phenomenon, called TV Pickup, occurs when large numbers of British citizens are watching the same TV show and at a break, or after a particularly tense soccer match, rush to the kitchen to turn on the kettle and have a cup of tea [35]. When a TV Pickup occurs, National Grid must quickly supply power to the grid to prevent an outage. That power comes from a pumped storage facility in Britain or from across the channel in France. Sharp increases in demand are a risk in every power system, though British tea kettle usage is particularly problematic. Power engineers throughout the world check the demand on the electric grid at all moments of the day and night and develop hourly, daily, monthly, and annual forecasts to prepare for peak periods. Those peak periods are usually seasonal and associated with equipment specific to those seasons: air conditioning in the summer and heating of water and buildings in the winter. The more extreme the summer or winter temperatures, the higher the peaks. Use of other electric equipment such as refrigerators, clothes dryers, restaurant kitchens, etc. can worsen a weather-related peak, leading power engineers to need to balance the grid by increasing power supplied and/or obtaining some type of reduction in demand. Alternative rate structures, often in the form of demand response programs, encourage customers to use electricity in lower demand periods. The Electric Power Annual Report [19] reports that in 2020 7% of all electric customers took part in demand response programs. However, many more customers believe they are on such rates, as shown by SECC’s 2019 findings that over 40% of small business customers and just under 20% of residential customers think they are taking part in alternative rate plans. Whichever statistics one considers, there appears to be many more customers that could move to alternative rates, and that interest in such programs exceeds utility offerings. Faruqui [24] reports that in 2021 just 10% of the 100 million electric customers with smart meters were on flexible rates. Total participation will increase to 15% by 2025 due to implementation of default Time-of-Use rates in California, Colorado, and Michigan. Studies of demand response and alternative rate programs from the 1980s to 2020 show a willingness on the part of customers to adjust their energy usage when they get a rate benefit. In the early 2000s a large study called the Statewide Pricing Program (SPP) tested a variety of rates and approaches and found good response as well as solid interest in demand response and time-differentiated alternative rates [29, 30]. A recent Opt-In Time-of-Use pilot conducted in California prior to the shift to default Time-of-Use rates [25] showed that Time-of-Use rates lead to load reductions as well as satisfied customers who experience little discomfort from their participation. The study also showed that lower-income customers and seniors, groups considered most at risk of being negatively impacted by these

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alternate rates, not only fared nearly as well as moderate- and higher-income customers, but also experienced no additional health or financial hardship from their participation compared to similar customers on the standard rate. While California has the highest penetration of distributed solar, distributed storage, and electric vehicles, owners of these key technologies are typically not on a rate that brings the value of the technology to the grid. However, that will necessarily change with the transition to a renewables-based grid. Research suggests that there is good potential in California for EV-managed charging programs, where the utility adjusts EV charging to limit peaking on the grid [33]. The research found that EV owners were willing to allow their local distribution utility to manage when and by how much vehicle charging occurs. Studies on how to use the BTM resources will continue until there is a clear path forward. There is a growing cadre of firms looking to support utilities in this process [5– 7]. These third-party companies partner with local distribution utilities to recruit utility customers into programs that the third-party companies run to sell demand reduction to the utility. These companies are developing technologies to enable them to use the telematics (monitoring functions) in electronic devices or to connect over Wi-Fi to run the devices. The third-party companies offer the demand reduction to the local distribution company and supply the electric utility customer some compensation or facilitate a utility bill credit for the customer.

3 Where Are the Opportunities for Behavioral Scientists? I started doing energy program evaluation in 1982, nine years after the Arab Oil Embargo. Between 1973 and 1980, there was unprecedented investment in energy efficiency, in renewable energy research and demonstrations, as well as in public service advertising to encourage households to reduce their energy consumption. These activities had a measurable effect. Meyers and Schipper [28] found: “In 1973, 85% of U.S. thermostats were set at 70 °F or more during the day. In 1981, only 45% of U.S. thermostats were set that high.” (p. 500). Forty percent of households had reduced their thermostat setting during the heating season, and this behavioral change generated a significant reduction in heating energy use. Yet, this was an easy task of curtailment – customers simply choose to consume less warmth. The harder tasks requiring investments such as weatherization, home upgrades, energy efficient appliances, and distributed energy such as rooftop solar have not reached similar heights of adoption. The leading digital smart energy product is a smart thermostat that automatically adjusts thermostat settings based on temperature and occupancy. About 3% of homes have such thermostats [11]. Yet, as we already know from the Meyers and Schipper study, most people were already manually adjusting their thermostats by 1980 or with programmable thermostats by the middle of that decade. Insulation, among the least expensive upgrades and readily available throughout the United States, could be a poster child for slow adoption. A well-insulated home has lower energy bills by an average of 15% or more compared to a typical

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comparable home [18]. However, insulation is an investment activity, requiring money and effort, unlike curtailment. The building owner must find a contractor, arrange for access to their building, pay the cost, and possibly repaint or do other clean up. Table 1 draws from the most recently analyzed data from the Residential Energy Consumption Survey for the United States in 2020. Twenty-eight percent of homeowners reported their home to be well insulated compared to 37% in 1990 ([12, 13]). This is not a good direction of change – though perhaps homeowners today have a higher standard for “well insulated” than they did in 1990. If so, perhaps the percent of homes considered well insulated is unchanged – although that would be little consolation. Utility and energy building engineers say the clean energy technologies work, the energy economists find that such investments are cost effective for households and businesses (and for utilities to support with incentives), and yet adoption of the most basic energy efficiency technology, home insulation, is still slow for homes other than most new construction. Adoption does not come easily. Adequately insulated homes have passed 50% primarily because of new construction energy codes that specify insulation levels. Older homes continue to have low levels of insulation, including the 3% of the housing stock with no insulation (which in 2020 numbered about 33% more homes than in 1990). Since 64% of the 2020 housing stock in the United States predates 1980 when energy codes became commonplace, a lot of work is still needed to reduce energy consumption in support of a renewables-based grid with its variable energy supply. There often seems to be no place for behavioral scientists in the world of energy. Engineers, economists, lawyers, and political scientists have clear roles to play in the science, engineering and policy work associated with energy. The people side of the energy market, however, is a key part of the transition. The people who are already paying attention to the role fossil fuels play in climate change and the need to reduce their energy use may want to “do the right thing,” but we have learned over the last 40 years that even willing people need help to know what steps to take, to understand the choices for investing, and perhaps to have financial support to make it happen. Then there is the majority who may not be fully aware of the energy challenges or have incomes below median or live in older buildings that need to be reached through “their community” as they don’t trust public messaging. These people also need to know what to do and to have market and financial support to make the changes. Table 1  US housing stock insulation levels from residential energy consumption survey, percent of respondents, 1990 and 2020

Adequacy of insulation Well insulated Adequately insulated Poorly insulated No insulation

1990 37 40 20 3 100

2020 28 52 17 3 100

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In the mid-2000s as utilities were beginning to install AMI meters, there developed a backlash against smart meters that focused on perceived negative health effects and concerns about overbilling using these meters [53]. According to Shea and Bell [37] of the National Conference of State Legislatures, most utility companies and public utility commissions allowed customers to opt out of smart meters; customers could say, no not my house or business. While the opt out population is low, electric customers need smart meters to take part in demand response and variable rate programs, and to use a solar energy system on a net metered account where the utility buys any unused energy. Thus, the opt-outs also miss access to the smart energy opportunities. This reaction to smart meters is like the challenges faced during the 2021 COVID-19 vaccination campaign in which mis- and disinformation led to a reluctance on the part of over 30% of the population to get a vaccine and vaccine booster [34]. Like the need for more social science and behavioral approaches to address concerns about COVID vaccination [1], we need more social and behavioral scientists and researchers to be engaged in preparing the public for the renewables-based grid and the changes in lifestyle that are likely to go with the transition. Utilities have changed their approach to deploying smart meters since the mid-2010 and while the choice to opt-out exists, resistance is less prominent. Changes in approach owe, in part, to materials and information developed by behavioral scientists working with the SECC to understand the questions electric customers have about the grid and then address those questions [42]. Behavioral scientists also have a role to play in developing new products and services both in product design and in thinking through prior to launch the issues that might trouble consumers. Rivas and Kelley [36] make a strong case for behavioral scientists becoming part of the design teams for new energy products and services. Product designers focus on the technical issues, how to make the product work, and getting manufacturing support (supplies, funding). These typically are engineering and finance questions. High tech fields brought more behavioral scientists to work with engineers and marketers in newly pursued user-experience (UX) design and user focused design [20]. Because a successful transition to a renewables-­ based grid depends on the adoption and appropriate use of new energy technologies, UX design for energy products is critical. The UX design opportunities are primarily in working with private companies offering hardware and software solutions and BTM products to manage the renewables-­based grid. Uplight is one such company conducting UX studies as part of their program implementation process; it uses this research to develop program messaging as well as make thermostat adjustments based on customer response [50, 51]. The smart thermostats themselves are clearly UX designed, given their appeal in look and function and their substantial adoption by young technology-focused electricity customers [43]. The range of nascent smart technologies is expanding and include: • Ways to easily connect electric vehicles (cars, bikes, and scooters) to charging systems.

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• Bi-directional charging systems that permit users to send energy to and take energy from the grid. • Managing the time, rate, and length of charging so it is good for the grid and the customer’s pocketbook. • Solar energy and battery systems and the adjustments to ensure the customer always has power, and at the best prices. • All the appliances that will be smart and smarter in the future: refrigerators, dishwashers, clothes washers and dryers, lighting systems, water heaters, water conditioning, air conditioners, heat pumps, pools pumps, etc. Behavioral scientists will be a key part of the grid transition. As these technologies evolve, behavioral scientists will explore the tradeoffs customers are willing to make relative to the cost and value the technologies can provide to the system and to the end users. For success, the industry must adopt more UX design in the development of products and services. Beyond UX design, behavioral scientists can work within utilities on marketing and market research, or with consulting firms to support the design and implementation of pilots and scaled programs, or as I did work to evaluate program success and make recommendations for improvement.

References 1. Auerbach, J.D., Forsyth, A.D.: Ignoring behavioral and social sciences undermines the U.S. response to COVID-19. Stat. First Opinion. March 9, 2022. https:// www.statnews.com/2022/03/09/ignoring-­b ehavioral-­s ocial-­s ciences-­u ndermines-­u s-­ covid-­19-­response/?utm_source=STAT+Newsletters&utm_campaign=0f786cf23e-­Daily_ Recap&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_8cab1d7961-­0f786cf23e-­152886522 (2022). Accessed 15 Mar 2022 2. Australian Government Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources: 2021 Australian Energy Statistics | energy.gov.au (2021). Accessed 20 Mar 2022 3. Barbose, G., Forrester, S., O’Shaughnessy, E., Darghouth, N.: Residential Solar-Adopter Income and Demographic Trends: 2021 Update. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (2021)., April 2021. https://eta-­publications.lbl.gov/sites/default/files/solar-­adopter_income_ trends_final.pdf 4. Best, R., Burke, P.J., Nishitateno, S.: Understanding the Determinants of Rooftop Solar Installation: Evidence from Household Surveys in Australia. Australian National University (2019). April 2019. https://ccep.crawford.anu.edu.au/sites/default/files/publication/ccep_ crawford_anu_edu_au/2019-­04/1902_0.pdf 5. CanaryMedia.com: Voltus launches $1.3B SPAC to help businesses reshape their power use and ease grid stress. December 3, 2021. https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/climatetech-­ finance/voltus-­launches-­1-­3b-­spac-­to-­help-­businesses-­reshape-­their-­power-­use-­and-­ease-­ grid-­stress (2021) 6. CanaryMedia.com: EnergyHub buys packetized energy to get millions of thermostats and EVs to help balance the grid. March 3, 2022. https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/grid-­edge/ energyhub-­buys-­packetized-­energy-­to-­get-­millions-­of-­thermostats-­and-­evs-­to-­help-­balance-­ the-­grid (2022a) 7. CanaryMedia.com: Is ‘vehicle-to-everything’ charging ready for prime time? April 27, 2022. https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/ev-­charging/is-­vehicle-­to-­everything-­charging-­ready-­ for-­prime-­time (2022b)

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8. Congressional Budget Office: Causes and Lessons of the California Electricity Crisis. Congress of the United States, Washington, DC (2001). https://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/107th-­ congress-­2001-­2002/reports/californiaenergy.pdf 9. Drehobl, A., Ross, L., Ayala, R.: How High Are Household Energy Burdens? American Council for and Energy Efficient Economy, Washington, DC (2020). September 2020. https:// www.aceee.org/research-­report/u2006 10. DSIRE: Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency. https://www.dsireusa. org/ (2022). Accessed 2 Mar 2022 11. Energy Information Administration: Corrected data tables for Residential Energy Consumption Survey obtained through communication with [email protected] (2015). 4 March 2022 12. Energy Information Administration (2020) data tables for Residential Energy Consumption Survey. HC 2.1.pdf (eia.gov) 13. Energy Information Administration: Data tables for Residential Energy Consumption Survey. https://www.eia.gov/consumption/residential/data/archive/pdf/DOE%20EIA-­0 314(90). pdf (1990) 14. Energy Information Administration: Solar generation was 3% of U.S. electricity in 2020, but we project it will be 20% by 2050. Today in Energy (2021b). November 16, 2021. Accessed 7 March 2022 15. Energy Information Administration: Annual Electric Power Industry Report, Form EIA-861 detailed data files. October 7, 2021. https://www.eia.gov/electricity/data/eia861/ (2021a). Accessed 7 Mar 2022 16. Energy Information Administration: Levelized Costs of New Generation Resources. Annual Energy Outlook 2021. https://www.eia.gov/outlooks/aeo/pdf/electricity_generation.pdf?mscl kid=aa19b123aa0f11ec859749503e876eed (2021c). Accessed 8 Mar 2022 17. Energy Information Administration: U.S. Field Production of Crude Oil https://www.eia.gov/ dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=pet&s=mcrfpus2&f=m (2022a). Accessed 11 Mar 2022 18. Energy Information Administration: Methodology for Estimated Energy Savings from Cost-­ Effective Air Sealing and Insulating. https://www.energystar.gov/campaign/seal_insulate/ methodology (2022b). Accessed 11 Mar 2022 19. Energy Information Administration: Electric Power Annual Report. March 2022. https://www. eia.gov/electricity/annual/pdf/epa.pdf (2022c) 20. Evans, D.C.: Bottlenecks: Aligning UX Design with User Psychology. Apress/Springer (2017) 21. Farhar, B.C.: Willingness to Pay for Electricity from Renewable Resources: A Review of Utility Market Research NREL/TP.550.26148. NREL, Golden CO (1999) 22. Farhar, B.C., Houston, A.H.: Willingness to Pay for Electricity from Renewable Energy NREL/TP-460-21216. NREL, Golden CO (1996) 23. Farhar, B.C., Unseld, C.T., Vories, R., Crews, R.: Public opinion about energy. Annu. Rev. Energy. 5, 141–172 (1980) 24. Faruqui, A.: A Walk Along the Rate Design Frontier. https://www.brattle.com/insights-­events/ publications/a-­walk-­along-­the-­rate-­design-­frontier/ (2021b). Accessed 7 Feb 2022 25. George, S., Bell, E., Savage, A., Messer, B.: California Statewide Opt-in Time-of Use Pricing Pilots. Final Report. March 2018. https://energynews.us/wp-­content/uploads/2020/09/ Statewide_Opt-­in_TOU_Evaluation-­Final_Report-­2.pdf (2018) 26. International Energy Agency: Evolution of Solar PV Module Cost by Data Source, 1970–2020. IEA, Paris (2021). https://www.iea.org/data-­and-­statistics/charts/evolution-­of-­solar-­pv-­ module-­cost-­by-­data-­source-­1970-­2020. Accessed 23 Feb 2022 27. Manton, K.: TV Pickup: Why Britain Throws Millions of Gallons of Water from Enormous Mountains. A Life of Mastery. https://alifeofmastery.com/tv-­pickup/#Related_posts (2021). Accessed 3 June 2022 28. Meyers, S., Schipper, L.: Energy in American homes: changes and perspectives. Energy. 9(6), 495–504 (1984) 29. Momentum Market Intelligence: Customer Preferences Market Research: A Market Assessment of Time-Differentiated Rates Among Residential Customers in California. Prepared for Southern California Edison, San Diego Gas & Electric and Pacific Gas & Electric (2003). CALMAC ID PGE0265.01. December 2003

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30. Momentum Market Intelligence: Statewide Pricing Pilot: End-of-Pilot Participant Assessment. Prepared for Southern California Edison, San Diego Gas & Electric and Pacific Gas & Electric (2004). CALMAC ID:CPU0006.02. December 2004 31. National Conference of State Legislatures: State Renewable Portfolio Standards and Goals. https://www.ncsl.org/research/energy/renewable-­portfolio-­standards.aspx#ia (2022). Accessed 7 Mar 2022 32. Office of the Historian, US Government Department of State: https://history.state.gov/ milestones/1969-­1976/oil-­embargo (2022). Accessed 1 Mar 2022 33. Opinion Dynamics, Extensible Energy: PG & E Electric Vehicle Automatized Demand Response Study Report (2022). CALMAC ID: PGE0469.01. February 2022 34. Rendall, J.: COVID vaccine hesitancy: Why people don’t want the shot. CNET:Wellness. September 8, 2021. https://www.cnet.com/health/why-­people-­dont-­want-­the-­covid-­19-­ vaccine-­hesitancy-­vs-­resistance/ (2021). Accessed 15 Mar 2022 35. Renewable Energy Hub: The Great British Kettle Surge. https://www.renewableenergyhub. co.uk/blog/the-­great-­british-­kettle-­surge/ (2020). Accessed 3 June 2022 36. Rivas, J., Kelley, L.: Tunnel Vision: the Impact of Ignoring Behavior in Technological Innovation. In: Proceedings of the 2022 Asilomar, CA: American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy Summer Study on Buildings (2022). August 2022 37. Shea, D., Bell, K.: Smart Meter Opt-Out Policies. National Conference of State Legislature. https://www.ncsl.org/research/energy/smart-­meter-­opt-­out-­policies.aspx (2019). Accessed March 2022 38. SECC: Consumer Pulse and Market Segmentation Study – Wave 5. Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative, Atlanta (2015) 39. SECC: The Empower Consumer. Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative, Atlanta (2016) 40. SECC: Modern Customer Engagement Journey, Topline Findings. Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative, Atlanta (2020a) 41. SECC: Understanding Lower-Income Consumers and the Smart Energy Future. Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative, Atlanta (2020b) 42. SECC: Consumer Information Kit for the Smart Grid. Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative, Atlanta (2021) 43. SECC: 2022 State of the Consumer. Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative, Atlanta (2022) 44. SmartGrid.gov: Advanced Metering Infrastructure and Customer Systems: Results from the Smart Grid Investment Grant Program. US Department of Energy, Washington, DC (2016). https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2016/12/f34/AMI%20Summary%20 Report_09-­26-­16.pdf 45. Sioshansi, F. (ed.): Consumer, Prosumer, Prosumager: How Service Innovations Will Disrupt the Utility Business Model. Academic/Elsevier (2019) 46. Sioshansi, F.: The future of electricity retailing: free kWhs with a catch. EEnergy Informer. 31(12), 9–12 (2021) 47. Stauffer, N.W.: Bolstering public support for state-level renewable energy policies. MIT News on Campus and Around the World. June 30. 2017. https://news.mit.edu/2017/bolstering-­ public-­support-­for-­state-­level-­renewable-­energy-­policies-­0630 (2017). Accessed March 2022 48. Strom-Report: Germany’s Power Mix 2020 – Data, Charts & Links. https://strom-­report.de/ germany-­power-­generation-­2020/ (2021) 49. Swezey, B., Bird, L.: Green Power Marketing in the United States: A Status Report, 5th edn. National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden (2000) 50. Uplight. TOU Optimization: Taking the Guesswork Out of TOU Rates with Demand Response. Uplight Case Study. Uplight.com. (2021) 51. Uplight. Blancing Customer Comfort with Load Shift: Rate-Optimized Thermostat Control at Alabama Power. Uplight Case Study. Uplight.com. (2022) 52. Weare, C.: The California Electricity Crisis: Causes and Policy Options. Public Policy Institute of California, San Francisco (2003). https://www.ppic.org/wp-­content/uploads/rs_archive/ pubs/report/R_103CWR.pdf. Accessed March 2022 53. Wesoff, E.: Confronting the Smart Meter and the Health Issue Link. GreenTech Media/Wood Mackenzie (2011). May 24, 2011

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Jane Peters  I started undergraduate college as a biology major and learned that spending my time in quiet labs with beakers and petri dishes no longer had the appeal I experienced in high school. I now wanted to study how people interacted with each other. I loved the psychology experiments with human subjects and chose to do a social psychology study for my senior thesis. That study was as fun as I had previously imagined lab work would be. I lived in Southern California and graduated with my Psychology BA in June 1972. A short time later, October 1973, the Arab state members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) announced they were embargoing oil exports to the United States and other allies of Israel and would further reduce production. The change in the US was dramatic. Gasoline that had cost as little as 25 cents a gallon when I learned to drive in the mid-1960s suddenly cost much more. Drivers could only buy gas every other day. I read The Limits to Growth, and it made sense to me that there were resource constraints. As Buckminster Fuller had written in 1969, this was spaceship earth. Resource constraints seemed real. I consumed book after book trying to find a place in this new world where people and technology were both the problem and the solution. There were few, if any, obvious entry points for psychologists. I was working for a research arm of the construction industry doing policy and economic research. It seemed important to understand the new technologies that would reduce energy use in buildings. I started learning about solar energy and energy conservation techniques, attending conferences and meetings. Since it was new to most everyone, it did not matter whether you were an engineer or a psychologist. I moved to Oregon a few years later. Home to a large alternative energy community, I served on the board of directors for a nonprofit converting an inner-city house into a demonstration of solar energy, energy conservation, and gardening for food. I worked as the information specialist for a local non-profit that built solar greenhouses and solar hot water systems using volunteer labor and conducted workshops. Eventually, I realized that I had to get an advanced degree if I wanted to have an active role in stimulating the switch to renewable energy. Ten years after getting my BA I entered a PhD program in Urban Studies at Portland State University. My dissertation was on the variables that explain thermostat setting behavior. My interests had led to a job in a consulting firm, conducting research to assess the effectiveness of energy programs using program evaluation techniques. I worked for several consulting firms and, in 1996, I started my own firm, Research Into Action, which I sold in 2019. A strong yet mighty part of the energy program evaluation arena, behavioral scientists contribute by designing surveys, conducting interviews, and in applying theory from behavioral sciences to ensure that energy programs are effective. We gather user experience insights and study how to accelerate adoption of energy technologies that help reduce the carbon footprint of homes, businesses, and industry. When I talk with engineers working on the renewables-­based grid, they always agree that people will make the difference in how well such a grid will work. There is a place and a need for behavioral scientists. As a post from the Oregon Department of Energy says, “Saving Energy Saves Everything.”

Islands Leading the Clean Energy Transition Kaitlyn J. Bunker

1 Context – Caribbean Electricity Systems The Caribbean is a diverse region made up of island nations and territories that each have their own unique identities, while forming a strong regional community. Figure 1 shows a map of the Caribbean; countries included in the region can vary by definition used, for example Small Island Developing States (SIDS) as defined by the United Nations [1], islands that are part of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) [2], etc. This chapter focuses on islands where I have had the opportunity to work, which are English-speaking islands with well-established electricity systems. Specifically, these include Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, Aruba, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, Saint Kitts & Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent & the Grenadines, the Turks & Caicos Islands, and the US Virgin Islands. The electricity systems in these Caribbean islands typically provide consistent, reliable electricity to residents and businesses, with access to electricity being nearly 100%. Most of these systems utilize diesel generators located in one centralized plant to generate electricity, and an overhead transmission and distribution grid to transport that electricity to users throughout the island. The islands that are a focus of this chapter do not have local fossil fuel resources, so the diesel fuel is imported from other locations. While the current electricity systems have provided reliable electricity to islands for many years, they also create challenges for island residents and for overall island economies. The fuel that must be imported is expensive, resulting in high costs for residents as shown in Fig. 2. In addition, since the cost of electricity is so closely tied to the cost of fuel, it can fluctuate up and down based on global oil markets and K. J. Bunker (*) Rocky Mountain Institute, Boulder, CO, USA e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 K. T. Wang, J. S. Tietjen (eds.), Women in Renewable Energy, Women in Engineering and Science, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-28543-1_3

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Fig. 1  Caribbean map. [3]

Fig. 2 Electricity prices in several Caribbean Islands, along with CARICOM and USA Averages. [4, 5]

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these variations are passed through to island residents and businesses on their monthly bills. The current electricity system in many Caribbean islands also leads to vulnerability to external shocks. The most commonly experienced external shock in the Caribbean is a hurricane, which in the Atlantic Ocean typically occur between June 1 and November 30. Hurricanes bring high winds and flooding to islands, and impact all infrastructure and the communities that live there. As the energy system underpins society, any extended grid outage can cause significant loss of livelihood and even lives, as food and medicines cannot be kept cold and essential services cannot reach all residents. The current Caribbean electricity systems are not resilient, meaning they are not likely to withstand an external shock like a hurricane, and are typically not able to recover or bounce back quickly afterwards. Since these systems are centralized in terms of depending on often one generating plant in one location, using one resource that must be imported, and using overhead transmission & distribution lines that are highly susceptible to wind damage, hurricanes can cause extended electricity outages that impact island residents; an example is shown in Fig. 3. Another challenge with the current electricity system is the environmental impact. Burning diesel fuel both creates local pollutants, and contributes to climate change. Islands are seeing the impacts of climate change firsthand, including an

Fig. 3  Example of damage to vehicles and electricity poles in the British Virgin Islands following Hurricanes Irma and Maria. (Photo credit: Author)

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increase in severe weather events such as hurricanes as described above. Hurricanes Irma & Maria in 2017 and Hurricane Dorian in 2019 all reached Category V, and Hurricane Irma alone impacted many islands in the region [6] before being followed closely by Hurricane Maria that crossed over some of the same islands a few days later. Although on a global scale islands are contributing little in terms of emissions (the Caribbean region contributes approximately 0.4% of global CO2 emissions [7]), islands are taking action to demonstrate what is possible, limit their emissions, and define their own futures. This action by islands also addresses an additional challenge with today’s typical island electricity system, which is a lack of local ownership. While some electric utilities are owned by an island’s government or by local institutions, the main fuel for electricity generation must be imported from somewhere else. This means that local dollars are leaving the island, and as each island pursues an energy transition, there is an opportunity to increase local ownership and decision making, ensuring that the economic benefits of this transition remain at home.

2 Islands’ Opportunity with Renewable Energy To address the challenges presented by the current electricity system in the Caribbean, islands have a unique opportunity to utilize their own local resources to generate electricity, and use it through resilient and locally-owned infrastructure that aligns with their own priorities. As you might imagine, islands in the Caribbean have lots of sunshine available! The abundance of this local resource makes solar energy an important option for most islands, as shown in Fig. 4. Some islands have an excellent wind resource (see Fig. 5 for a photo of Aruba’s wind farm), and several islands in the Eastern Caribbean have potential to generate electricity through geothermal, given their volcanic history. In addition, some islands already use hydroelectricity in the form of run-of-­ river plants that utilize the water flowing on the island. Other options like wave or tidal energy exist, although they have not yet been commercially proven and may be higher cost than other options that are operating today in the region, like solar, wind, and hydro. Utilizing some or all of the resources above as part of an overall energy transition can bring potential benefits to an island community. The lifetime costs of local, clean energy options are typically less than using diesel generators, although the timing of these costs line up differently – a diesel generator has a lower upfront cost, with significant costs over time for maintenance and of course for fuel. A solar farm or a wind turbine has a significant capital cost, but low ongoing maintenance costs and no fuel cost over time – so it is important to compare the lifetime costs. Another benefit of pursuing renewable energy options is increased resilience, meaning a better ability to withstand an external shock like a hurricane or a global oil price shock, and to bounce back more easily from this type of event. As previously described, most island electricity systems have typically relied on one

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Fig. 4  My team visiting the solar PV parking canopy at the National Stadium in The Bahamas. [8]

Fig. 5  Photo of Aruba’s wind farm with visiting Caribbean energy leaders during the Green Aruba conference in 2015. [9]

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generating plant in one location, using one resource that must be imported, and using overhead transmission and distribution lines to get the electricity to users. Implementing renewable energy diversifies the electricity system in more ways than one, including having multiple resources used for electricity generation that are sited in multiple locations, and using at least some local resources. Utilizing local renewable energy options is also more sustainable than burning diesel fuel for electricity. Many islands have submitted their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) as part of the Paris Agreement, committing to targets that reduce their emissions. In addition to lowering islands’ contributions to global emissions is the opportunity to improve local air quality by lessening the emissions that impact the air that island residents breathe every day. And as mentioned briefly when discussing potential benefits related to resilience, renewable energy options generally rely on local resources once installed. In addition to being more secure than relying on imported fuels, this creates more opportunities for local ownership of the energy system, and local decision making about which options to pursue and how to best implement them for the benefit of that island and its residents. However, there are challenges with transitioning to use local, renewable energy resources for islands. One main challenge is that the current system works, at least in terms of providing reliable electricity every day to island residents. Electric utilities are focused on keeping the grid running today, and there are limited time and resources to move projects forward and move towards a renewable energy future. There are also significant challenges related to funding energy-related projects. While direct project funding and financing options are available to the Caribbean, they are not always accessible given the complicated and unwieldy processes to apply. My colleagues with the Climate Finance Access Network (CFAN) are working to address this specific challenge [10].

3 How Islands Are Leading Despite these challenges, islands in the Caribbean are leading their own energy transitions, setting an example and inspiring global action. The islands that are seeing the most success so far in implementing their local energy transition are generally integrating three types of activities that are discussed further in this section, and can be summarized as: planning, projects, and people.

3.1 Planning In order to start an energy transition, an island needs a clear plan. Having a general vision and being ambitious with targets is good, but there is a risk of this being an empty vision if it is not backed up by numbers, and in alignment from multiple

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Fig. 6  Kickoff of resilient national energy transition strategy process in the Turks and Caicos Islands. (Photo credit: FortisTCI)

stakeholders. The government, electric utility, regulator, and community members need to align on what they want their energy sector to look like, both in the short and long term. Figure  6 shows energy sector stakeholders in the Turks and Caicos Islands, along with my team, kicking off an integrated energy planning process. In aligning on this ideal future state, there is a need to prioritize. An energy transition can certainly optimize for multiple objectives, and generally renewable energy does improve circumstances in more than one area. At the same time, it is important to understand the local priorities of each island in order to determine the specific approach that best optimizes across all of the objectives. This includes optimizing from a technical perspective (for example which electricity generation options to pursue, how they should be connected to the grid (or not), how they should be operated) as well as an economic perspective (for example who should own these resources, how should they be paid for – both up front and ongoing costs). While most islands that I have worked with generally have a similar set of objectives, each one has ranked their objectives with a different prioritization in line with their local values and goals. For example, one island might prioritize cost as the top objective, and seek opportunities to lower electricity costs while meeting other secondary objectives. A different island might prioritize reliability as the top objective, as maintaining consistent and high quality electricity service is important to their local needs. Another might prioritize resilience, and focus first on how to build capacity to withstand and recover from external shocks, while balancing other objectives. Additional objectives often include lessening environmental impacts,

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Fig. 7  Overview of energy planning process

and growing local jobs and industry through the energy system transition. Figure 7 shows an overview of the energy planning process, which starts from a broad and open perspective and continually narrows in on the best options for that particular island. Once there is alignment on the objectives for the future energy system and the priority among them, the planning continues with the development of a set of scenarios that represent future pathways that an island might pursue. The scenarios often contain different mixes of new electricity generation options (renewable or otherwise) but can also be distinguished by different approaches to operating the system (for example a more distributed versus centralized approach), or different ownership structures (mostly owned by the utility versus mostly owned by others), for example. The scenarios are first modeled so that all stakeholders in the planning process can see how each scenario would perform – how electricity needs would be met, how much it would cost to implement and operate each one, etc. This usually includes a dispatch analysis matching electricity generation to load in each hour and reviewing which types of electricity generation resources would be available and called upon as the load changes throughout a day, between seasons, and over the coming years. In addition to modeling the operation of electricity generation resources, the grid’s operation is often analyzed to determine how the generated

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electricity would be transported through interconnected wires to reach the people who use it. This analysis includes assessing whether operating the grid would be feasible under each scenario, and if not what the costs would be for required grid upgrades. Once the scenario modeling is complete, the final step in the planning process of evaluating the scenarios takes place. In this step, the performance of the scenarios is compared to the prioritized objectives set at the beginning of the process. Some scenarios may perform better in certain areas; for example there may be a scenario that reduces costs significantly (scoring well in the cost category), but does not make any improvements to the resilience of the system (scoring poorly in the resilience category). Based on how the priorities were set, the scenario that performs best across the priorities is identified. This planning process is similar to the integrated resource planning (IRP) process undertaken by many utilities to identify the optimal pathway and to plan their investments in the coming years. Where I have seen this process be most successful in islands is where it has been expanded to be a more inclusive process, including stakeholders beyond the utility and within the government, regulator, and community. The end result is sometimes called a National Energy Transition Strategy (NETS) or an Integrated Resource and Resilience Plan (IRRP), and this plan has buy-in from all of the key decision makers that will be involved in the next steps of implementing the plan. It is a jointly owned process and result that can be carried forward by more than a single organization, which allows the plan to lead directly to the implementation of projects.

3.2 Projects As described above, having a clear fact-based plan is essential to aligning stakeholders around a scenario that meets the objectives of a specific island. The plan identifies an optimal portfolio of projects, including those that should be prioritized for near-term action. Many Caribbean islands now have their first clean energy projects in place, but before these were done there was a lot of uncertainty in how to prepare and implement a project of this type. It was a new type of project for that island, so challenges and questions arose at every step from preparing the physical site for the project, to acquiring the necessary permits, to finding and selecting a company to build the project. As with planning, islands that are leading in their energy transition have worked to prepare and minimize project risks, to help ensure their successful implementation. Saint Lucia’s 3 MW solar PV project is a great example of a leading island taking action to implement their first large-scale clean energy project. The peak electricity demand in Saint Lucia is approximately 60 MW, so this project represents a significant size for the island. The project is located near Saint Lucia’s international airport, so along with preparing the site itself and studying the soil type to understand the right type of foundations for the solar array, additional studies were

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Fig. 8  My colleagues and I (in the center) at the groundbreaking for the Saint Lucia 3 MW solar PV project; and a photo of the completed project next to the international airport

needed to ensure that the project would not interfere with planes flying in and out of the country. The project is shown in Fig. 8 and was completed in 2019. It generates 7 gigawatt hours (GWh) of electricity every year, which is equivalent to powering 3500 homes in Saint Lucia. The utility avoids using 1.36 million liters of diesel fuel each year by operating the solar plant, resulting in an annual emissions reduction of 3800 mTCO2. First projects like Saint Lucia’s have immediate impact for island residents and

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allow the local electric utility to gain experience in operating a more diverse and distributed set of generation resources. This experience can then inform the next projects and next steps in an island’s clean energy transition. Another project example comes from The Bahamas, on a small island that previously used diesel fuel that had to be transported from the larger islands in the country, after first being imported into The Bahamas. Ragged Island is home to approximately 70 people, and their electricity system was destroyed during Hurricane Dorian in 2019. Rather than rebuilding the same system, the utility company that serves the island, Bahamas Power & Light (BPL), built a new system based on solar PV and battery energy storage, with diesel backup [11]. The island is now 93% renewable, and BPL only needs to ship fuel to Ragged Island every few months, much less frequently than with a fully diesel-based system. Figure 9 shows a photo during the construction phase of the Ragged Island project.

3.3 People Behind the clean energy transition of any island are the people who are taking action, learning, innovating, and driving progress forward. Connecting local energy leaders both within and among islands allows these individuals to spread their influence further and share their experiences in a way that benefits others. Sometimes these connections happen in small informal ways, and others through more formal and structured communities of practice. The success that islands are showing demonstrates the value of empowering the people who are ready to take action.

Fig. 9  Photo from Ragged Island during construction. (Photo credit Fidel Neverson, RMI)

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Two specific communities focused on clean energy practitioners in the Caribbean region have been essential in building connections among the people behind the energy transition. CARILEC, the regional association of electric utilities, created the CARILEC Renewable Energy Community (CAREC) in 2017 and participation grew to over 1000 members [12]. The Caribbean Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (CCREEE) is building the CARICOM Energy Knowledge Hub as “an information and knowledge management framework developed to ensure that appropriate, reliable, and high-quality information is available and accessible within the region” [13]. The aspects of planning, projects, and people are essential to defining and implementing an island’s energy transition, and the three support and reinforce each other. Getting a project in the ground provides practical experience and information that strengthens an energy transition plan. A plan developed through an inclusive and analytical approach provides a clear portfolio of projects to pursue next, ensuring that each project moves an island towards its’ objectives. And driving all of the planning and projects work are the people on that island who are building and sharing expertise in renewable energy technologies, economics, operations, etc.

4 How Island Women Are Leading Among the people leading the Caribbean’s energy transition are a significant number of women. There are women who make decisions in their household every day and women who lead the major energy-related organizations within their island. All are playing an essential role in renewable energy. In some cases, women have risen to top leadership roles where they guide key organizations and make decisions related to the energy sector within their island. Prime Minister Mia Mottley of Barbados was elected in 2018 with more than 70% of the popular vote and is Barbados’ first female leader since its independence in 1966 [14]. She was named Champion of the Earth for Policy Leadership by the United Nations Environment Programme in 2021 and one of the TIME Magazine 100 Most Influential People of 2022. Prime Minister Mottley is leading the charge to implement the renewable energy transition in Barbados while being a champion and advocate on the global stage. In the Turks and Caicos Islands, Ruth Forbes was appointed CEO of the electric utility company, FortisTCI, in 2020 [15]. She leads the utility as they maintain a high level of electricity service, while implementing clean energy projects across the multiple separate island electricity grids that they serve. One of FortisTCI’s innovative projects, the Utility-Owned Renewable Energy (UORE) program, invites customers to lease their roof space to the utility, who owns and maintains solar panels installed there [16]. Ruth demonstrates strong leadership through her empowerment of her team and her dedication to explore the next clean energy projects that will bring benefit to the Turks and Caicos Islands.

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While leaders like Mia and Ruth are driving change and inspiring others, Caribbean women are also driving change from whatever role they are in. The Clinton Foundation founded the Women in Renewable Energy (WIRE) network as a professional development group for women working in energy in island nations. Since its founding in 2016, more than 560 individuals from more than 60 countries have joined the network, which includes a dedicated mentoring program where island women mentor one another [17]. The participants in the mentor network within WIRE gather once annually in person, often at the Caribbean Renewable Energy Forum conference in Miami. I was fortunate to be able to spend some time with the amazing women participating in the network at the conference in 2017, which also happened to be on my birthday, shown in Fig. 10. As women continue to lead from wherever they are in implementing island clean energy transitions, they are demonstrating the importance of equity on a local scale. Energy equity between nations and regions is often discussed, and for islands is best shown through the fact that small islands have contributed little to global climate change, but are the first to see its impacts on their livelihoods. As I’ve discussed in this chapter, islands are flipping their role as early victims of climate change to leaders in transitioning their own energy systems, despite not having the same resources as other parts of the world. Equity is also an important factor at the local level, within each island. The clean energy transition needs to work for everyone, with as much local ownership and decision making as possible. As more women contribute to defining their island’s energy future, whether they have a formal role in the process or not, they are helping

Fig. 10  Photo from WIRE convening in Miami, on my birthday in 2017

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to ensure that diverse perspectives are considered and that the best solution to meet local needs is implemented.

5 My Experience After reading this chapter so far, you may be wondering how an engineer based in the United States came to work closely with Caribbean islands on clean energy. When I was completing my PhD in electrical engineering, I certainly never imagined that I would work internationally. I started my job search and used the keyword “microgrid”; my PhD research focused on optimal control systems for remote microgrids utilizing renewable energy resources, so I knew I wanted to continue doing something related to microgrids as I started my career. Through a connection within the Society of Women Engineers, I was introduced to Rocky Mountain Institute, a nonprofit organization focused on transforming the global energy system to secure a clean, prosperous, zero-carbon future for all. I joined RMI after graduating and was initially focused on the US electricity system. After a few months, there was a need for an energy system model in RMI’s islands-­ focused work, so I volunteered to build the model. The experience resulted in a deep understanding of the Caribbean region and the unique islands within that are leading the clean energy transition. Nevertheless, I didn’t know at the time that I was embarking on a pathway that would bring me to lead the Islands Energy Program at RMI several years later (Fig. 11). In doing this work, I’ve enjoyed balancing between the more technical aspects of building energy system models such as analyzing how an island electricity grid would operate under various future scenarios, with the more people-focused side of

Fig. 11  Women attendees of the Green Aruba conference in 2015, gathered for breakfast and discussing ideas for the Women in Renewable Energy (WIRE) Network

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my role in connecting with island stakeholders to understand their priorities and perspectives. I’ve found that as an engineer coming from the U.S., there is another important balance to strive for. On one hand, I have relevant knowledge and experience that I can share in any new place where I work, and on the other hand I am ready to learn about any new place and the people who live there. As a women engineer, I’ve sometimes found it challenging to find this balance, as it can feel like I need to prove myself and my abilities to be taken seriously, and in doing so risk coming across as an outsider to the region coming in with preconceived notions of the best solution. As I spent more time working in the Caribbean, I’ve found that this challenge is actually less pronounced than my experience as an engineer in the U.S. – people that I work with in the Caribbean tend to immediately see my credentials and are ready to work with me. There is definitely a need (and it is better described as an opportunity) to build trust with our partners and stakeholders, but I haven’t felt a strong push to first prove my technical skills before being taken seriously when working in the Caribbean, as compared to my experience in the U.S. I’ve been successful in building that essential trust by spending time with people who are leading the energy sector today in each island, for example the electric utility company and the relevant ministry within the government. Hearing their priorities and visions for the future of their energy system, even while they work hard every day to keep the lights on with the current electricity infrastructure, has continually inspired me. The Caribbean as a region and each individual island have people that are full of expertise and excitement about the energy future both locally and globally, and it’s an honor to work alongside them to help turn their visions into clear pathways backed by analysis and initial projects implemented on the ground.

References 1. United Nations Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States. https://www.un.org/ ohrlls/content/about-­small-­island-­developing-­states. Accessed 11 Mar 2022 2. CARICOM Member States and Associate Members. https://caricom.org/member-­states-­and-­ associate-­members/. Accessed 11 Mar 2022 3. World Atlas, Geography of the Caribbean. https://www.worldatlas.com/geography/geography-­ of-­the-­caribbean.html. Accessed 11 Mar 2022 4. JICA CARICOM Countries RE/EE Data Collection Survey and Final Report. https://openjicareport.jica.go.jp/pdf/12185096.pdf. Accessed 11 Mar 2022 5. Energy Information Administration, State Electricity Profiles. https://www.eia.gov/electricity/ state/. Accessed 11 Mar 2022 6. BBC News, Hurricane Irma: Caribbean islands left with trail of destruction. https://www.bbc. com/news/world-­latin-­america-­41218002. Accessed 12 Sept 2017 7. Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR). https://edgar.jrc.ec.europa. eu/. Accessed 12 Feb 2020 8. CBS News, Storm-ravaged Bahamas rebuilding its power grid with emphasis on solar energy. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bahamas-­hurricanes-­power-­grid-­solar-­60-­ minutes-­2020-­03-­01/. Accessed 11 Mar 2022

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9. Wind Base, Wind Farm Vader Piet Aruba. https://www.windbase.eu/projects/wind-­farm-­ vader-­piet-­aruba.aspx. Accessed 11 Mar 2022 10. Climate Finance Access Network. https://cfanadvisors.org/. Accessed 11 Mar 2022 11. Tugliq Energy Co, Ragged Island Microgrid Project. https://tugliq.com/en/realisation/ragged-­ island-­en/. Accessed 1 Apr 2022 12. CARILEC Renewable Energy Community. https://community.carilec.org/login. Accessed 11 Mar 2022 13. CCREEE CARICOM Energy Knowledge Hub. https://www.ccreee.org/cekh/. Accessed 11 Mar 2022 14. United Nations Environment Programme, Barbados PM Mottley leads the charge against climate change. https://www.unep.org/news-­and-­stories/story/barbados-­pm-­mottley-­leads-­ charge-­against-­climate-­change. Accessed 11 Mar 2022 15. FortisTCI President & CEO. https://www.fortistci.com/team/ruth-­forbes. Accessed 11 Mar 2022 16. FortisTCI Utility Owned Renewable Energy Program. https://www.fortistci.com/uore-­ program. Accessed 12 Mar 2022 17. Clinton Foundation, Women in Renewable Energy (WIRE) Network. https://www.clintonfoundation.org/programs/climate-­change-­disaster-­recovery/clinton-­climate-­initiative/wire-­ network/. Accessed 11 Mar 2022 Kaitlyn J.  Bunker,  Ph.D., P.E. is a Director of RMI’s Islands Energy Program, where she leads a diverse team that partners with islands in the Caribbean to support and accelerate their clean energy transitions. The team completes energy modeling and technical analysis to develop clean energy investment plans, prepares and de-risks resilient clean energy projects, and connects energy professionals in regional communities of practice.  Before joining RMI, Kaitlyn completed a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Michigan Technological University in Houghton, MI. Her dissertation research focused on microgrids, and optimizing control strategies for distributed renewable resources. She stayed at Michigan Tech for graduate school following her undergraduate studies, which were also in electrical engineering. With a mechanical engineer father and biochemist mother, Kaitlyn knew from a young age that she wanted to pursue a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) career. She received advice that electrical engineers use the most math out of all of the engineering disciplines, and as a math lover, she decided to pursue this option.  As a college student and later as a professional, Kaitlyn has been a member of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE). Participating in SWE has allowed her to gain new leadership skills while contributing to an organization whose mission she is proud of. As a PhD student, Kaitlyn served as the Collegiate Director on SWE’s Board of Directors, which opened up a new understanding of the importance of strategic thinking and collaboration. Kaitlyn received the SWE Distinguished New Engineer award in 2018.  Kaitlyn lives in Colorado with her husband and two  daughters. They are slowing renovating their home to be as energy efficient as possible, are using heat pumps for heating and cooling, and an induction cooktop in the kitchen – it was an exciting day when the natural gas line to the house was capped off.

Distributed Energy Resource Grid Transformation and Customer-Sited Virtual Power Plants Ja-Chin Audrey Lee, Laura Fedoruk, and Steve Wheat

1 A Democratized Approach to Renewable Resources 1.1 Introduction To meet the needs of a developing global economy that will increasingly use more electricity while limiting the impact of climate change, the electrical grid must transform from a top-down, centralized system of large generating power plants to a more intelligent network system managing a two-way flow of information and energy. In order to reach decarbonization goals and limit climate change, the grid will need to seamlessly integrate millions of fluctuating renewable resources and customer demand, where demand is the instantaneous power consumption required to serve customer uses. It must evolve to a participatory partnership that increases resilience and societal benefits. The authors believe that distributed energy resources are a primary path towards this evolution. The electric infrastructure we’ve built to power our lives is aging, sometimes failing, and in danger of irreparably damaging our biosphere. The impacts of climate change are already being felt on the grid around the US and the world. Larger, faster growing, and year round wildfires have caused more frequent grid outages, causing some utilities to pre-emptively shut off the power to millions of people in order to avoid the potential of sparking a wildfire, such as the Public Safety Power Shutoffs that are now common practice in California. Even the electric grid’s most J.-C. A. Lee (*) San Francisco, CA, USA L. Fedoruk Burlingame, CA, USA S. Wheat Los Altos, CA, USA © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 K. T. Wang, J. S. Tietjen (eds.), Women in Renewable Energy, Women in Engineering and Science, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-28543-1_4

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reliable previous source of clean energy, hydropower from dams, has increasingly come under strain. Reservoirs feeding power plants, such as the Hyatt Power plant, which was shut down in 2021 due to lack of water [25], are sometimes falling below levels needed to generate power. Threats from a changing climate only tell part of the story of risks to our infrastructure, as state and non-state actors have become increasingly sophisticated and successful in breaching the centralized electric grid with physical and cyber-­security attacks, with the Department of Energy reporting hundreds of successful attacks targeting systems with electrical grid information [31]. Decentralizing energy information frameworks may make them more secure [29]. Multiple modeling studies [35, 36], have shown that electrification of transport and buildings reduces 1) direct energy consumption and 2) greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in those sectors and shifts them into the power sector, the net effect of which is energy system-wide reductions in both energy consumption and emissions. All of this increasingly points to the value of electrifying and decentralizing the system. By localizing energy production and control, problems on one part of our energy system can be prevented from cascading into the entire grid. Combustible fuels and power systems can be retired and those communities protected, and the citizens and communities who were previously customers can be allowed to make choices, and become active partners in the transformation of their power system to a community resiliency asset. Electricity is a necessity that impacts every aspect of our lives. Utilities and energy regulators are rightly focused on ensuring universal access and safety of the electrical grid. With sufficient data, new operational methods, and market, policy and technological advancements, the creation of a more distributed and decentralized asset operation can benefit the environment, enhance the resilience of our communities, and lower the long term energy and infrastructure costs of the grid. The chapter is written from the viewpoint of author Audrey Lee, unless otherwise indicated. Author Connection and Thoughts on Working in Energy and Sustainability Audrey, Laura and Steve worked together at Sunrun developing the company’s first virtual power plant (VPP) projects. Along with a small and passionate team, they developed and successfully deployed VPP projects across the US, helping Sunrun to be named ‘Disruptor of the Year’in 2019 by Utility Dive. 1 In thinking about their careers in the energy sector, Audrey and Laura noted the following: The most meaningful accomplishments in my career have come from the teams I’ve built to work on clean energy and sustainability. Whether in policy,

 https://www.utilitydive.com/news/disruptor-sunrun-distributed-energy-services-solar-storagedive-awards/566256/ 1

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data, software and hardware product or business development, the impacts of individuals in deciding how to use their careers consistently helps to create new value and transform our energy systems. All of us bring unique superpowers (across diverse skill sets and diverse industry perspectives), and working together to cross-pollinate ideas and build solutions will be our path to successfully transforming and decarbonizing our energy system. As our grid evolves, there will be increasing participation of decentralized renewable resources and opportunities for everyone  – from consumers to CEOs  – to contribute to grid sustainability. – Audrey Lee. My career has taken me from energy efficiency and net zero design through to distributed energy policy, software and data science. The constant along the way has always been interesting and complex problems in the climate and energy space and working alongside others passionate to contribute to our sustainable future. Grid transformation is a wicked problem [56] – one that will constantly evolve and require many interdisciplinary minds.  – Laura Fedoruk

1.2 From Centralized to Distributed, Macro Changes to Energy Systems Audrey Lee  – I’ve spent almost 20  years of my career on energy and electricity because it is so critical and fundamental to society. What attracted me to work on customer-sited distributed energy sources is both the rapid technological innovation (and associated capabilities) and the element of customer choice. The electricity grid is infrastructure, and infrastructure requires large amounts of capital investment. There is an appeal to a more customer-oriented approach to infrastructure investment and deployment. Customers are making choices and investments today on a variety of distributed energy resources (DERs) at their homes, commercial businesses, and industrial sites. They are increasingly pairing energy storage with solar [2]. Customer-sited DERs are inherently local. DERs are sited and generate or manage electricity at or near the location where it is consumed, potentially providing locational grid value. This reduces the need for transmission and distribution infrastructure [33], which is becoming increasingly difficult to site in urban and suburban places [7, 9, 49], not to mention the physical losses associated with transporting electricity large distances from the place of generation to the place of consumption. DERs enable resiliency by avoiding outages related to equipment far from a customer. And most exciting to me, is the potential to coordinate large numbers of DERs together to react to challenges on the larger electricity grid and provide beneficial solutions to all customers on the grid, sometimes referred to as a virtual power plant (VPP). Due to their localized nature, grid services provided by aggregated and coordinated DERs such as solar paired batteries, have the potential to provide even more value and benefits than traditional, centralized power plants.

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While the electrical grid was initially built as a top-down, centralized architecture for delivering power from large power plants to small end users, the proliferation of DERs has upended this model. The ability to monitor and control decentralized assets is critical to achieving the levels of renewable energy contribution necessary to avert catastrophic climate change while also maintaining grid resilience and reliability. One of the methods of coordinating these assets is through the concept of aggregation of individual energy sources into VPPs. These networks of decentralized energy resources can be monitored and controlled via advanced software systems to mimic larger scale resources [10] despite being physically separate and most often independently owned and operated. The evolution of the electrical grid from a centralized structure allowing large power plants to serve a distribution of customers across wires and poles to one where energy can be supplied and served at the edges of the system is a relatively new phenomenon – referred to as the ‘Grid Edge [5]. This evolution has benefited from decades of work by planners, engineers, policy makers, and even university campuses – some of the first end users to adopt microgrids [19]. As the costs of technologies such as sensors, photovoltaic (PV) panels and batteries have come down, their pace of adoption has surpassed even optimistic estimates. Cost estimates have consistently proven to be too high. Reductions in infrastructure deployment costs such as solar PV have outpaced annual estimates by more than twice the estimated rate [54]. Figure 1 shows this infrastructure cost reduction as $/Wdc for PV projects between 2007 and 2026 for all US market segments. Figure 2 shows the significant and exponential growth in energy storage deployments across all market

Fig. 1  US PV turnkey engineering, procurement, construction (EPC) pricing by market segment, 2007–2026 ($/Wdc). (Source: Wood mackenzie solar systems and technology service)

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Fig. 2  U.S. Annual energy storage deployments across all market segments, 2016–2021. (Source: Wood mackenzie U.S. energy storage monitor)

Fig. 3  Expected DER growth through 2050 mirrors growth of global internet users between 1990–2020. (Source: Generac, Sunrun, BNEF, SEIA. https://climatetechvc.substack. com/p/-lessons-from-plaid-for-a-future)

segments in the US between 2016 and 2021. Figure 3 shows how DER growth to 2050 is expected to mirror the growth of global internet users between 1990–2020, with 110 million connected devices today forecast to grow to 4.14 billion in 2050. As an example of how rapidly technology adoption is occurring, interconnected capacity of net energy metering (NEM) solar PV and battery systems in California

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has been accelerating exponentially.2 NEM, a billing construct for customers with solar to be credited on their bill for energy that they send back to the grid, has enabled exponential growth of residential solar in places such as California [4]. In the decade between 2012 and 2022, NEM connected solar in California experienced an average increase of approximately 30% per year [4]. In 2020 renewable energy accounted for over 33% of the state’s total system generation [37]. In Australia the uptake of rooftop solar has been even more staggering, with one in four homes having rooftop generation installed [1]. Solar seems to be the driving force in displacing coal use in electricity generation in Australia, though in 2020 renewables still only accounted for 10% of all electricity generated in the country [24]. While policies such as NEM have enabled adoption of solar energy, as the percentage of renewables on the grid increases it becomes more necessary to look at policies to best coordinate distributed assets with the wider grid, pairing them with firm assets such as energy storage, and how to incentivize market and consumer behaviors that result in the lowest cost and highest resilience for customers across the entire grid. It is expected that distributed energy storage and PV capacity across Oceania, North America and Europe will double between 2020 and 2025 [55], and the majority of newly interconnected bulk energy capacity on these systems will come from renewable generation, which is often the lowest cost marginal addition to energy grids.

1.3 A Career Journey Creating Virtual Power Plants – (Ja-Chin Audrey Lee) I started working on energy storage and virtual power plants in 2014 with Advanced Microgrid Solutions (AMS) (acquired by Fluence Energy [NASDAQ: FLNC]). With Susan Kennedy as CEO and backing from the industry, we at AMS successfully piloted the concept of turning commercial buildings into aggregated power plants using battery storage to help displace fossil-fueled peaker plants. The AMS team negotiated four demand response energy storage agreements with Southern California Edison (SCE) (now managed by Stem [NYSE:STEM]) to provide a total of 50 MW of resource adequacy (RA) (200 MWh) to meet local capacity requirements at two transmission substations (Santiago and Johanna) in Southern California, filling a 2.2 GW capacity need resulting from the closure of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station. This capacity for the Southern California grid was provided by discharging lithium-ion batteries installed behind the meter at commercial and industrial customer sites, when dispatched by SCE through the AMS Armada platform. When the batteries were not used by SCE, they were discharged to reduce customer electricity bills, by reducing peaks in usage and associated demand charges and reducing usage during higher priced on-peak periods. Because the batteries were behind the utility meter, they charged from retail electricity at retail rates.  https://www.californiadgstats.ca.gov/charts/

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To fund the project, we at AMS raised $200 million in project financing from Macquarie Capital, the largest dedicated energy storage financing at the time. We also raised the first non-recourse debt financing of battery-based energy storage systems with CIT Bank. Finally, we established a technology partnership with Tesla Energy to procure Powerpacks, Tesla’s lithium-ion battery and inverter solution. The business development strategy was to serve commercial and industrial host customers. This included 1) real estate property owners–rather than managers–who could make decisions across their portfolios of sites like The Irvine Company; 2) enterprise customers with multiple store sites like Walmart; and 3) industrial customers or campuses with high electricity usage and experience deploying other DERs on site like Irvine Ranch Water District, Inland Empire Utilities Agency, and California State University. Host customers paid a monthly service fee for electricity bill savings, and paid nothing up front since the batteries were financed off of the customer service fee and the VPP revenue. Many battery systems also participated in the Self-Generation Incentive Program (SGIP) (discussed later in this chapter) to reduce higher technology costs at the time. I was the first employee at AMS and was responsible for building the technology platform (called Armada), including pre-sales analytics, product management, and engineering. My team at AMS built a patented battery design and management platform [28]. I leveraged my experience with linear programming and optimization models at the Department of Energy 8 years prior where I worked with Brookhaven National Laboratory modelers to model the US energy system and understand the impact of energy and climate change mitigation policies. Using each customer site’s historical electricity bill and usage pattern (at 15-min intervals), we optimized the power (MW) and energy (MWh) sizing or design for each site’s battery system to maximize both delivery of the VPP capacity and customer electricity savings across the entire fleet of batteries. We extended the design or pre-sales analytics portion of the platform to then operate this fleet of batteries in a VPP. This included frequent forecasting of customers’ electricity usage patterns and re-optimization of battery dispatch across the VPP fleet. Battery operating characteristics and contract terms are the constraints in an optimization model and maximizing revenues from both customer bill savings and VPP revenues and minimizing costs are the objective function. Battery dispatch behavior is the decision variable that is solved for. In 2017, Sunrun (NASDAQ: RUN) invited me to build and lead the grid services business there. Sunrun already had a partnership with National Grid Ventures at the time and both companies were eager to scale DERs and grid services in the residential customer market. Soon after joining Sunrun, I was also given responsibility for the new and growing Brightbox battery business. Since batteries and grid services go hand-in-hand, it made sense to intertwine the success of both, and my team at Sunrun called our group Energy Services to reflect services to both the grid and to residential customers. Similar to services for commercial and industrial customers at AMS, for residential customers the battery combined with rooftop PV provided electricity bill savings through time-of-use on-peak and off-peak electricity pricing arbitrage, as well as home electricity backup and islanding in the event of a grid

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outage. And similarly, grid services through aggregation in a VPP could provide additional revenues or cost reduction in the upfront capital costs of the battery. At the time, the concept of using residential DERs for grid services was relatively new, just as it was new for commercial and industrial customer DERs a few years before when I was at AMS.  This meant that policies and regulations were needed to change the status quo and create the grid services industry for residential DERs. For this I found my partner in Anne Hoskins (Chief Policy Officer at Sunrun) and her team. Just as at AMS, new business models and market development in the regulated energy industry require strong partnerships between business development and policy teams, and leveraging the latest advances in technology solutions. Our two teams worked with utilities across the US like National Grid in Massachusetts, Green Mountain Power in Vermont, Orange & Rockland in New York/New Jersey, and PSEG Long Island to develop Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) programs which allowed customers to enroll their home battery systems for demand response programs that financially benefited customers and helped to reduce utility peak load. These programs would often include customers that had installed their batteries for backup power to their home before the programs even began, as well as customers purchasing new systems, for whom the value of the BYOD program was a part of their initial buying decision. The Power of Combining Engineering, Economic and Policy Analysis In order to prove the techno-economic value and feasibility of this grid services concept, our data scientist Laura Fedoruk spent a lot of time building financial and energy models based on the latest policy assumptions at the time. This involved understanding the potential market mechanisms for participating DER assets of residential solar plus battery energy storage to receive payments for services, analyzing the fleet characteristics of our solar and battery storage systems, and making use of their advanced metering telemetry and creating custom physics-based models. This work of combining physics-based engineering models and assumptions with large empirical datasets from distributed systems is key to unlocking the potential of these assets, allowing regulators and industry to feel confident that these technologies can support the grid in the ways that are envisioned. Analysis of historical time series DER meter data (customer electricity usage, PV solar generation, and battery storage charge and discharge) can lead to better operations, better assumptions about asset availability, and more awareness by grid operators of how these systems perform. Through diversification of the features of assets included in an aggregation – such as patterns of energy consumption, and even the direction that solar PV panels are facing  – it is possible to build a stronger and more resilient VPP. Without these detailed analyses, proposals are just ideas, and operational issues may never be uncovered and remedied. If we as an industry are to change the

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operational nature of the electrical grid, models for forecasting and analysis will be critical, as will be finding ways to unlock the economic potential of these assets to provide multiple value and revenue streams such as for both customer bill optimization as well as grid capacity or other services. Having spent part of my career in government and part of my career in the private sector, I value both public policy and competition, and I see a complementary role for both in unlocking the power of grid transformation. While customers are adopting DERs, not all customers are able to afford the high capital costs of many DERs, and the costs and benefits of such installations are extremely local due to the diverse nature of electricity tariffs across utility jurisdictions [27]. Financing business models that reduce or eliminate the up-front costs and allow installments to be paid, usually with the electricity cost savings due to the DER, but also with payments for other services such as those created via energy storage, load shifting, and ancillary or capacity services, have made DERs more accessible. Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) that allow customers to access solar energy for a fixed cost per unit energy and put the cost burden of construction on a developer who sells the energy to a customer have enabled adoption of solar energy by residential and commercial purchasers [47]. Going further, public policies that incentivize or subsidize DERs, and target customers in disadvantaged areas, have increased access to DERs. Examples of these types of programs are California’s Self-Generation Incentive Program (SGIP) [46], California’s Solar on Multifamily Affordable Housing (SOMAH3) and Multifamily Affordable Solar Housing (MASH4). With respect to new models like VPPs, policy is crucial to creating the market structures that correctly value the benefits and services of coordinated DERs on the grid, especially in the regulated monopoly model of the electric utility sector. Since regulated utilities profit from a fixed rate of return on capital expenditures, even if DERs may decrease costs for infrastructure upgrades – through reducing the need for new poles and wires – they may not be attractive to utility bottom lines. If utility profit structures disincentivize building local renewable energy and resilient systems, and market structures do not allow participation of nontraditional assets such that new models can be profitable, there will have been a missed opportunity to enhance equity as well as progress towards climate change mitigation and adaptation. FERC 2222 attempts to reduce the barriers to market entry for DERs [14], and will hopefully result in increased benefits of installed capacity as well as accelerated deployment and new revenue streams. There is no stopping customer adoption of DERs, especially as costs decline and functionality improves. But we also have an electricity grid into which all of us have invested trillions of dollars. The optimal solution is to ensure that both operate together and complement each other. The role of government and public policy is to create the rules and market structures and incentives to achieve society’s goals – decarbonization, grid reliability, and customer access to electricity, such that the private sector can innovate and thrive in these market structures. Concepts such as  https://calsomah.org/  https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/industries-and-topics/electrical-energy/demand-side-management/ california-­solar-initiative/csi-multifamily-affordable-solar-housing-program 3 4

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having transmission and grid operators, states and utilities work together to plan for connecting more renewables to the grid and sharing the costs of doing so – such as proposed in FERC’s recent NOPR [48] – build on policy successes in the distribution system and provide hope for the evolution of our shared grid. In October 2013, the California PUC adopted a 1325 MW procurement mandate for electricity storage by 2020, as directed by Assembly Bill 2514  in 2010. The procurement mandate is divided between three domains: transmission connected, distribution level, and customer-sited storage. Additional laws in 2016 increased the initial goal of 1325 MW with a supplementary 500 MW target and helped the power providers reach this initial mandate, including through distributed energy storage system-specific mandates and incentives. To date the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has approved procurement of more than 1533 MW of new storage capacity to be built in the state, of which 506  MW are operational. This exceeds the AB 2514 target and satisfies the domain-specific requirements [11, 22]. Specific to customer-sited technologies, the SGIP began in 2001 through legislation, to help address peak electricity problems in California. SGIP has provided incentives to a variety of distributed energy technologies, with eligibility and incentive levels changing over time to respond to California’s evolving energy needs. A key evolution is the contribution of energy storage technologies to the program. Figure 4 illustrates the cumulative growth of SGIP storage capacity and projects. According to the 2019 SGIP Energy Storage Impact Evaluation, “Residential [battery] systems with on-site solar consistently provide benefits to customers in the form of billed energy savings during the summer, are discharging throughout investor-owned utilities (IOUs) and the California Independent System Operator’s (CAISO’s) top hours and decrease GHG emissions while utilizing only 60 percent of available capacity.” [45].

Fig. 4  SGIP storage cumulative growth by upfront payment year. (Source: California Public Utilities Commission)

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2 DERs: Hidden Assets Ready for Use 2.1 Distributed Energy Assets DERs are typically thought of as assets interconnected on the distribution grid that consist of energy generation, controlled consumption, and storage. They can be connected directly to the distribution grid on the utility side of the meter (front of the meter), or on the customer side of the meter (behind the meter – BTM). In the latter case they are usually small-scale (typically