In California, there is often an excess supply of solar energy in the middle of the day, which can lead to grid curtailment - when clean, renewable energy is not generated to its full capacity or sold to other regions at negative pricing. As more electric vehicles enter the market in California and are poised to charge at the similar peak demand times, utilities are looking for strategies to shift demand of electric vehicle charging to use that excess supply of solar energy. The project's goal was to analyze the potential of electric vehicles as a flexible demand response tool and how to turn a challenge into an opportunity.
By modeling various product changes out to the year 2035 with company growth, this team identified the material and dye applications with the largest GHG savings for apparel company Patagonia. From this, they sought to develop realistic product change recommendations to decrease the overall environmental impact of Patagonia’s products.
This project aimed to identify synergies and tradeoffs between agricultural practices, ecosystem health, and human wellbeing in Rwanda. Their approach was to examine Vital Sign’s integrated data across a variety of indicators. This analysis was then used to inform agricultural development decisions.
This research group project was commissioned by The Nature Conservancy (TNC) to conduct a watershed analysis of the Carson and Walker river basins of Douglas County, Nevada. They developed a conceptual model of the local watershed, evaluated ecosystem services and the impacts of climate change, as well as performed a market feasibility study to determine if a water fund mechanism would be possible in the region.
This project provided a unique opportunity to use history to inform conservation planning. The property has a long history of human land use, with controlled fires set by the Chumash and centuries of ranching under Spanish land grants. Due to the lasting influence of human disturbance on ecosystem structure and function, a comprehensive understanding of land use history is essential to an effective conservation plan.
This project worked in partnership with the Nature Conservancy (TNC) to explore how we can support the wind energy growth while ensuring the continued conservation and protection of nature and biodiversity. To do this, the group evaluated whether wind power projects located in areas that avoid harming wildlife have a lower likelihood of cancellation.
To develop floating offshore wind projects in federal waters off the coast of California, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) Pacific Region has tasked the Bren School with characterizing and assessing the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with the integration of offshore wind energy into California electricity markets.
This project modeled market interactions for different scenarios of offshore cultivation to elucidate what effects these new markets would have on both consumers and suppliers of totoaba products, as well as the illegal market for poached buche.
Reducing the environmental impacts of the apparel supply chain through harnessing waste from the agricultural industry, converting it into apparel-grade fiber.
This project aimed to estimate the greenhouse gas emission reductions which would result from powering CBS facilities nationwide with 100% renewable energy, and actions to implement this strategy.
