Enhancing Resiliency and Increasing Equity in the Transition to a Sustainable Energy Future

NRT：在向可持续能源未来过渡的过程中增强弹性和增加公平性如果我们要避免有害的气候变化影响，我们的能源系统必须从依赖化石燃料向由风能和太阳能等可再生能源提供的可持续和弹性系统进行根本性转变。要成功实现这一转变，需要电力行业的创新技术和政策解决方案。这些解决方案必须重新构想电力部门，使其在对社会的效益和影响方面既公平，又能适应未来气候趋势和能源需求的不确定性。这项授予马萨诸塞大学阿默斯特分校的国家科学基金会研究培训生（NRT）奖将培养研究生、硕士和博士生，以解决向低碳未来过渡过程中的综合技术、经济和社会挑战。该项目预计将培养125名硕士和博士研究生，其中包括29名受资助的学员，他们来自土木、工业、电气与机械工程、计算机科学、经济学、环境保护、地球科学和政治学。学生们将在电力技术、能源经济与政策、气候科学和社会公平的交叉领域进行研究。他们将产生富有弹性和公平驱动的创新，同时培养有效的领导能力和沟通技巧，非常适合吸引利益相关者。通过与能源转型第一线的利益相关者建立战略伙伴关系，该项目将建立一个协作社区，共同努力寻找具有本地和全球效益的最佳能源解决方案。该项目的主要目标是将公平和弹性的概念纳入能源转型的研究和培训中。该项目将促进对技术和政策如何影响社区以及气候不确定性如何需要弹性能源系统解决方案的综合理解。这反过来又会影响研究目标。我们将使用电力市场模拟器，将来自不同教育和社会经济背景的学生聚集在一起。学员将确定技术和政策如何结合起来影响公平；通过角色扮演，他们将发展对广泛观点的理解和同理心。学生们将接受有关公众参与的培训，并将举办活动和交流平台，以加强研究人员、政策制定者、从业者和社区领袖之间的沟通。研究将侧重于以公平和适应气候变化的方式平衡电力供需的有力解决方案。该项目将开发跨多个时间尺度的能源需求和供应的概率估计集合，开发评估公平影响的指标，并使用气候和潮流模型为稳健的决策提供信息。该项目将在目前缺乏足够知识的领域产生有影响力的能源研究成果，同时为学员提供适用于美国及其他地区的扩展跨学科工具包，以及影响变革的长期竞争优势。美国国家科学基金会研究实习生（NRT）计划旨在鼓励开发和实施大胆的、具有潜在变革性的STEM研究生教育培训新模式。该项目致力于通过创新、循证、适应不断变化的劳动力和研究需求的综合培训模式，在高优先级跨学科或融合研究领域对STEM研究生进行有效培训。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。

NRT: Enhancing Resiliency and Increasing Equity in the Transition to a Sustainable Energy FutureA fundamental transformation of our energy system from dependence on fossil fuels to a sustainable and resilient system supplied by renewable sources such as wind and solar is necessary if we are to avoid harmful climate change impacts. To successfully achieve this transition requires innovative technology and policy solutions in the electricity sector. These solutions must reimagine the electricity sector in a way that is simultaneously equitable in the benefits and impacts to society as well as resilient to uncertainty in future climate trends and energy demands. This National Science Foundation Research Traineeship (NRT) award to the University of Massachusetts Amherst will train graduate master’s and doctoral students to solve the integrated technological, economic, and societal challenges in the transition to a low carbon future. The project anticipates training 125 MS and PhD students, including 29 funded trainees, from Civil, Industrial, Electrical & Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, Economics, Environmental Conservation, Geosciences, and Political Science. The students will conduct research at the intersection of electricity technology, energy economics and policy, climate science, and social equity. They will produce resilient and equity-driven innovations, while developing effective leadership and communication skills ideally suited to engaging stakeholders. Through strategic partnerships with stakeholders at the front lines of the energy transition, the program will develop a collaborative community, working together to find optimal energy solutions with local to global-scale benefits.The key goal of the program is to integrate concepts of equity and resiliency into research and training on the energy transition. The program will foster an integrated understanding of how technology and policies impact communities and how climate uncertainty necessitates resilient energy system solutions. This in turn will impact research goals. We will use an electricity market simulator to bring students from diverse educational and socio-economic backgrounds together. Trainees will identify how technology and policy combine to impact equity; and through role-play they will develop understanding and empathy for a wide range of perspectives. The students will receive training on public engagement and will produce events and communication platforms that will enhance communication between researchers, policymakers, practitioners, and community leaders. Research will focus on robust solutions to balancing the supply and demand of electricity in a way that is equitable and resilient to climate change. The project will develop ensembles of probabilistic estimates of energy demand and supply across multiple time scales, develop metrics to evaluate equity impacts, and use climate and power flow models to inform robust decision-making. The project will produce impactful energy research outcomes where adequate knowledge is currently lacking, while providing the trainees with an expanded interdisciplinary tool kit applicable to regions across the US and beyond, and a long- term competitive advantage to effect change.The NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) Program is designed to encourage the development and implementation of bold, new potentially transformative models for STEM graduate education training. The program is dedicated to effective training of STEM graduate students in high priority interdisciplinary or convergent research areas through comprehensive traineeship models that are innovative, evidence-based, and aligned with changing workforce and research needs.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.