Planning Grant: Engineering Research Center for Beneficial Energy System Transformations for Climate Change, Adaptation, and Societal Equity (BEST-CCASE)

能源的好处和影响与社会和人民生活广泛交织在一起，使能源系统转型成为积极、包容的变革的重要机会。提出了一种新的方法，与其他社会、经济和自然系统共同开发能源系统，使它们实现多重惠益。将这一模式应用于光伏系统，该项目提出了“太阳能表面”的概念，即利用光伏的大表面积来解决炎热、干旱、高阳光地区(如西部和西南部)相互交织的可持续性挑战，包括：(1)气候适应，重点是缓解城市和农村人口的热和水压力，并增强复原力；(2)负碳能源系统；(3)气候公平和社会公平。BEST-CCASE的愿景是开发多功能能源系统，以解决能源转型、气候适应和负碳问题，这是一个变革性的目标，需要工程、社会科学、生态和生物领域的不同领域以及从代表性不足的社区、政府和工业、从小规模农业到一些世界上最大的企业的广泛利益攸关方的深度整合。这笔计划拨款的目标是：(1)建立一个明确和清晰的研究活动组合，这些活动完全整合在三个领域；(2)建立一套综合的衡量标准和里程碑，以衡量大规模跨学科倡议研究组合的成功；以及(3)深化和扩大利益相关者的互动，考虑社区和利益相关者的需求，确定不同方法和结果的优先顺序。BEST-CCASE将推动以人为中心的能源工程三个领域的进步。第一个是在能源系统及其与人类和自然系统的相互作用等复杂系统建模方面的进展，使能源系统设计和分析的洞察力和工具成为可能。拟议的模型扩大了可分析的影响范围，包括新的技术组成部分(例如分布式发电和储存、电气化、需求响应、系统弹性)、随机过程的影响、人类与能源系统的相互作用(例如新的需求模式、能源系统的社会影响)以及新出现的环境影响(例如野火)。第二种是新的多功能能源技术，由创新的材料和物理/化学工艺实现，允许同时进行电、光和热控制。例如，这种控制允许光伏直接提供局部冷却或选择性地过滤用于植物生长的光，或进入建筑物或新的二氧化碳捕获材料和工艺。第三个是以人为中心的参与和设计以及社会技术系统分析的新方法，这些方法加深了对人-能源相互作用的理解和量化(例如，能源-贫困关系，通过多功能技术设计和集成创造价值)，并支持通过能源系统设计和实施改善社会正义的战略。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The benefits and impacts of energy are extensively intertwined with society and people’s lives, making the transformation of energy systems an important opportunity for positive, inclusive change. A new approach is proposed to co-develop energy systems with other societal, economic and natural systems so that they achieve multiple beneficial outcomes. Applying this paradigm to photovoltaics (PV) systems, this project develops the concept of “solar surfaces,” in which it leverages the large surface area of PV to address the intertwined sustainability challenges for hot, arid, high-sunshine regions (e.g., the West and Southwest), including: (1) climate adaptation, focusing on mitigation of heat and water stress on urban and rural populations and increasing resiliency; (2) negative carbon energy systems; and (3) climate justice and social equity. BEST-CCASE’s vision – to develop multifunctional energy systems that address energy transitions, climate adaptation and negative carbon – is transformative goal that requires the deep integration of different fields in engineering, social science, ecology and biology and a broad range of stakeholders ranging from underrepresented communities, government and industry, from small-scale agriculture to some of the world’s largest businesses. The goal of this planning grant is to (1) build a clear and well-articulated portfolio of research activities that are fully integrated across the three areas; (2) establish a set of integrated metrics and milestones against which to measure the success of the research portfolio for a large-scale interdisciplinary initiative; and (3) deepen and expand stakeholder interactions and prioritize different approaches and outcome, taking into account community and stakeholder needs.BEST-CCASE will drive advances in three areas of human-centered energy engineering. The first is advances in modelling complex systems such as the energy system and its interaction with human and natural systems, enabling insights and tools for energy systems design and analysis. Proposed models expand the range of effects that can be analyzed, including new technical components (e.g., distributed generation and storage, electrification, demand response, systems resilience), impact of stochastic processes, interactions of humans with the energy system (e.g., new patterns of demand, societal impacts of energy systems), and emerging environmental impacts (e.g., wildfires). The second is new, multi-functional energy technologies enabled by innovative materials and physical/chemical processes that allow simultaneous electrical, optical and thermal control. This control allows, for example, photovoltaics that also directly provide local cooling or selectively filter light for plant growth or into buildings or new CO2 capture materials and processes. The third is new approaches to human-centered engagement and design and socio-technical systems analysis that deepen understanding and quantification of human-energy interactions (e.g., the energy-poverty nexus, value creation through multi-functional technology design and integration) and enable strategies for improving social justice through energy systems design and implementation.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.