Standard Grant: Forest Fuels: Equity, Environment, and Woody Biomass Energy Technologies in Michigan

该奖项支持一个合作研究项目，该项目研究了密歇根州不同规模的木质生物质能源技术的社会生态影响，包括住宅柴炉、社区规模的锅炉和生物质发电厂。该项目将为密歇根州使用木材作为能源的社会可接受性提供更深入的理解。对木质生物质能源系统的文化承载能力有更细致的了解将有助于决策者确定哪些技术可能适合特定的景观和社区。这项研究的结果将通过密歇根州全州木材能源小组和全国绿色热能联盟的专业活动、媒体宣传活动（如地区广播和报纸采访）广泛传播。本计划亦将提供机会，训练本科生掌握历史及社会科学的研究方法，包括访谈、文献分析、焦点小组和调查的设计和实施。这个合作研究项目将使用新的方法来思考可再生能源发展与环境正义之间的关系。它将空间分析与科学技术研究（STS）和环境历史的方法相结合，以了解自20世纪后期以来这些不同技术如何分配利益和负担。它将使用多种方法，包括档案分析、半结构化访谈、调查和空间分析，来调查导致采用生物燃料技术的社会政治因素。通过结合历史研究、定量社会科学方法和空间分析，该项目将有助于揭示过去的政治和社会动态如何制约未来的技术发展。研究人员将通过学术出版物、公共宣传工作和课堂教学活动来交流研究结果。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award supports a collaborative research project that examines the socio-ecological implications of differently-scaled woody biomass energy technologies in Michigan, including residential woodstoves, community-scale boilers, and biomass power plants. The project will provide deeper understandings of the social acceptability of using wood for energy in Michigan. Having a more nuanced understanding of the cultural carrying capacity for woody biomass energy systems will help policy-makers determine which technologies may be appropriate for particular landscapes and communities. The results of this research are to be disseminated broadly though professional activities with Michigan's Statewide Wood Energy Team and the national Alliance for Green Heat, media outreach activities such as regional radio, and newspaper interviews. The project will also provide opportunities for training undergraduate students in historical and social science research methods, including the design and implementation of interviews, documentary analysis, focus groups, and surveys.This collaborative research project will use new approaches for thinking about the relationship between renewable energy development and environmental justice. It combines spatial analysis with approaches from science and technology studies (STS) and environmental history to understand how these different technologies have distributed benefits and burdens since the late twentieth century. It will use multiple methods including archival analysis, semi-structured interviews, a survey, and spatial analyses, to investigate the sociopolitical factors that have led to adoption of biofuel technologies. By combining historical research, quantitative social science methods, and spatial analysis, this project will help to reveal how political and social dynamics from the past constrain technological development in the future. Researchers will communicate the results of the research through scholarly publications, public outreach efforts, and instructional activities in their classrooms.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.