Baker

2025 BEaRS Workshop

Daniel Morton — Mon, 21 Jul 2025 22:38:29 +0000

2025 BEaRS Workshop Daniel Morton Mon, 07/21/2025 - 16:38

Daniel Morton

The 2025 BEaRS Workshop brought together researchers from across the front range (and beyond, with our guests from Japan) to participate in cross-cutting interdisciplinary discussion focused on energy and resilience.

This inaugural ɫ��ֱ�� Energy and Resilient Sustainability (BEaRS) workshop brought together scientists from across a range of disciplines, from the social sciences to fundamental physics, from buildings and control to electronics and computing, all discussing how we can better use energy to develop a more resilient future.

The program for the three-day workshop was made up from seven session, with topics including sustainability and the built environment, active matter and chiral materials, building energy technologies, energy systems and the economics of renewable integration, energy policy, grid optimization and energy efficient computing. We welcomed guests from across the Front Range, from Golden to Fort Collins, and further afield, with collaborators from the WPI-SKCM2, based at Hiroshima University.

The program was designed to include a range of speakers, from invited plenary speakers to student researchers, the aim was to provide opportunities for connection and discussion and to seed cross-disciplinary ideas. The plenary speakers really set the tone for each of the days, striking notes of optimism and encouragement, while also instilling urgency and impatience for change.

Amory Lovins, a co-founder of the Rocky Mountain Institute, joined us from Stanford to present on how integrative design can be used to enhance efficiencies and drive down costs in buildings, everything from the house Amory lives in, to factories for Intel. Using this design principles for today’s technologies can have significant lasting impact in reducing energy use. We have the technology, and we know how to design for it.

Chuck Kutscher, who has spent decades at the cutting-edge of renewable energy research at NREL and now as a RASEI Fellow, gave an overview talk on the clean energy transition with a focus on air pollution and human health. Chuck highlighted all the ways in which we can drive down air pollution as we move to cleaner energy and the impacts, both on human health and societal economics that these changes would make. Central to this change is the drive toward electrification, it will provide cheaper electricity that will significantly reduce the impact on human health.

Ian Lange, an economist from the Colorado School of Mines, an expert in global mineral policy, gave an insightful overview of the status of the global mineral market and provided perspectives on how to think about and understand this industry. The knowledge imparted, both on how to think about the minerals in the soil, and some of the factors that are real drivers in this discussion provided a great way to better understand this important market for technology.

Thank you to everyone who was able to attend and participate in the lively questions, panels, and discussion. The opportunity to spend time with experts from a wide range of fields and approach current ideas from new perspectives is extremely valuable and a great opportunity to explore some of the intersectional ways in which disparate fields can work together.

The workshop was capped off with some of the workshop participants, after a busy three days, finding the motivation to hike up Bear Peak on Saturday morning,

July 2025

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Exploring the importance of Environmental Justice variables for predicting Energy Burden in the Contiguous United States

Daniel Morton — Tue, 06 May 2025 19:30:45 +0000

Exploring the importance of Environmental Justice variables for predicting Energy Burden in the Contiguous United States Daniel Morton Tue, 05/06/2025 - 13:30

ISCIENCE, 2025, 112559

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RASEI Fellows develop sustainable solutions to address AI increases in energy demand

Daniel Morton — Wed, 16 Apr 2025 20:18:56 +0000

RASEI Fellows develop sustainable solutions to address AI increases in energy demand Daniel Morton Wed, 04/16/2025 - 14:18

April 2025

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Climate Innovation Collaboratory awards $1M to tackle key sustainability challenges

Daniel Morton — Tue, 15 Apr 2025 16:19:12 +0000

Climate Innovation Collaboratory awards $1M to tackle key sustainability challenges Daniel Morton Tue, 04/15/2025 - 10:19

April 2025

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The importance of integrating energy justice into chemistry graduate student research and the associated pathways and barriers

Daniel Morton — Tue, 26 Nov 2024 03:11:21 +0000

The importance of integrating energy justice into chemistry graduate student research and the associated pathways and barriers Daniel Morton Mon, 11/25/2024 - 20:11

NATURE CHEMISTRY, 2024, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41557-024-01681-z

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RASEI Fellows receive 2024-2025 Deloitte and CIC Research Awards

Daniel Morton — Mon, 11 Nov 2024 21:11:59 +0000

RASEI Fellows receive 2024-2025 Deloitte and CIC Research Awards Daniel Morton Mon, 11/11/2024 - 14:11

Daniel Morton

The Climate Innovation Collaboratory (CIC) was launched as a collaborative venture between ɫ��ֱ�� and Deloitte, with the goal of translating cutting-edge climate research and data into meaningful climate solutions for businesses, organization, government agencies and communities.

This year three RASEI Fellows were recipients of awards to develop long-term engagements with Deloitte and expand access to critical climate data analytics, research and technology. These projects explore how the renewable energy grid can be built out to offer clean solutions for AI data centers and greater adoption of electric vehicles.

RASEI Fellow Bri-Mathias Hodge is the principal investigator for a project titled “Interconnection Planning for Large Data Centers”. The goal is to develop a system planning tool to automate the initial processes needed for utilities to identify generation expansion, network reinforcement, and asset upgrades to meet the demands of new data centers. This work will help utilities, grid operators, and data center operators to deal with the expansion in the number and energy usage of data centers at the state, regional, and international levels. With the rise of AI, seen as the industrial revolution of the 21^st century, better understanding of how and where to place the data centers that are the engines driving this transformation will be critical.

RASEI Fellow Kyri Baker is the principal investigator for a project titled “Viability of long- and short-duration energy storage for AI Data Centers: Carbon, Cost, and Reliability”. This project combines the benefits of short and long duration energy storage to increase uptime, improve renewable energy utilization, and lower payback periods for AI data centers. By developing an optimization framework for data centers energy storage that leverages price and renewable energy forecasts to co-optimize cost, carbon, and resilience. Creation of a tool that optimizes data energy storage would have significant relevance to commercial and government clients seeking to lower data center consumption.

RASEI Fellow Stephanie Weber is the principal investigator for a project titled “EV Infrastructure and local economic spillovers”. This project seeks to understand both how the construction of public electric vehicle charging infrastructure affects the surrounding areas as well as the tradeoffs associated with prioritizing equity in public charging locations. This will help inform state and national governments in the deployment of EV charging stations, to help incentivize EV adoption, and better understand the non-monetary impact of building EV chargers.

11/11/2024

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The climate-energy nexus: a critical review of power grid components, extreme weather, and adaptation measures

Daniel Morton — Thu, 12 Sep 2024 17:21:10 +0000

The climate-energy nexus: a critical review of power grid components, extreme weather, and adaptation measures Daniel Morton Thu, 09/12/2024 - 11:21

ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH: INFRASTRUCTURE AND SUSTAINABILITY, 2024, 032002

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Weather-related power outages are on the rise. Here's why, what to expect in the future

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Jul 2024 06:00:00 +0000

Weather-related power outages are on the rise. Here's why, what to expect in the future Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 07/23/2024 - 00:00

This discussion in ɫ��ֱ�� Today with RASEI Fellow Kyri Baker explores the importance of the power grid, how climate change is threatening aging infrastructure and what upgrades are needed to support a future powered by renewable energy

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Colorado is latest state to try turning off the electrical grid to prevent wildfires

Anonymous — Fri, 12 Apr 2024 06:00:00 +0000

Colorado is latest state to try turning off the electrical grid to prevent wildfires Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 04/12/2024 - 00:00

Kyri Baker discusses the benefits and challenges of this strategy.

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Supply, demand and polarization challenges facing US climate policies

Anonymous — Tue, 16 Jan 2024 07:00:00 +0000

Supply, demand and polarization challenges facing US climate policies Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 01/16/2024 - 00:00

NATURE CLIMATE CHANGE, 2024, 14, 134-142

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