NSF Engines Development Award: Developing an use-inspired decarbonization and grid resilient energy ecosystem (WV, PA)

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This NSF Regional Innovation Engines Development Award seeks to build an innovation ecosystem that offers solutions to energy resilience, decarbonization and energy security via regional partnerships in the West Virginia and southwestern Pennsylvania (WV-swPA) region. The need for reliable decarbonized energy sources and for the resilience of grid infrastructure from natural and non-natural threats will only increase over the next decade. The Resilient Energy Technology and Infrastructure (RETI) consortium combines the research power of three R1 universities (West Virginia University, University of Pittsburgh, and Carnegie Mellon University), along with a host of regional non-profits, industry stakeholders, and government partners. RETI will focus on regionally appropriate technologies for energy resilience and security. In parallel, RETI will identify pathways for workforce development that align with emerging energy technologies and policy development that accelerates the adoption of those technologies. Energy justice is central to RETI’s mission and as such, diversity, inclusion, and equity will be forefront in RETI efforts. RETI’s diversity committee will ensure that proposed technologies are reviewed for their potential impact and benefit to regional communities, and workforce plans will be developed in partnership with community leaders, ensuring accessible and meaningful opportunities for regional economic growth. Through these efforts, RETI will lay the groundwork for a regionally impactful innovation engine that produces market aligned technologies ready to meet the nation’s future energy demands. Innovation in energy resilience and security is complex. It combines technical areas in need of advancement with regulatory, and capital-intensive financial hurdles. Yet advancing new energy technologies is critical to future national security and global health. The WV-swPA region has been a historic energy producer, making it an ideal location to imagine, develop and deploy the next generation of energy technology. The RETI consortium will identify the most pressing and relevant technical areas in which RETI partners can make an impact and grow a network of vested industrial partners, regional workforce partners and state and local government to support a regional innovation engine for energy resilience and security. Diversity initiatives will ensure RETI efforts align to regionally disadvantaged communities through direct engagement advocating a central mission of energy justice. Collectively, RETI will build the foundations necessary to revitalize WV-swPA in a comprehensive energy resilience innovation engine, driving development of use-inspired technologies and deployment of globally relevant energy solutions. This Development Award will enable RETI to engage in a regional, collaborative planning process to prepare a future Engine that addresses these goals.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.