New technologies like real-time electricity meters and smart appliances are generating vast amounts of new, granular data on household energy consumption. This grant supports the Energy Data Analytics Lab (EDAL) at Duke University in its efforts to use this growing body of data to increase our understanding of household energy consumption patterns; evaluate policy interventions designed to curb energy use; and anticipate strains, failures, and bottlenecks in the electricity sector. Planned research topics over the next two years include investigations into how big data can be used to develop accurate baseline assessments of energy resources, how to use remote sensors to estimate the distribution and growth of household solar panels, and how the discovery and extraction of U.S. natural gas deposits are related to price volatility in the natural gas market. Additional grant funds support a host of outreach and community-building activities by the EDAL, including the hosting of a workshop on advanced energy data analytics, the construction of a web portal to make EDAL research, data, and methods easily available to other researchers, and the training of undergraduate and graduate students through lectures, classroom modules, and laboratory assignments.

This grant provides two years of continued support to the Deep Energy community of the Deep Carbon Observatory. Researchers working in the Deep Energy community investigate the abiotic methane and hydrogen in the deep recesses of Earth. These compounds, when oxidized, release energy into the rocks around them, feed microbial life, and possibly contribute to humanity’s store of energy resources. Recent discoveries, many of them by DCO researchers, suggest that such deep energy reserves are significantly more plentiful than science has imagined. Over the next two years, Deep Energy researchers will use both field-based investigations in oceanic and continental settings and lab experiments on fluid-rock interactions to shed light on a number of important scientific questions, including how to differentiate between abiotic and biotic hydrocarbons; the role of serpentinization and other hydrogen-generating reactions in the production of deep energy; how deep energy reactions mediate the form, quantities, distribution, and mobility of abiotic carbon and hydrogen; and the relationship between deep energy and deep microbial life. In addition, the Deep Energy team will begin collaborative work with other DCO communities to bring together insights from numerous disciplines in geoscience to create a functional four-dimensional Deep Carbon in Earth Model.

This grant provides partial support to a research project by the Bureau of Economic Geology (BEG) at the University of Texas, Austin. A multidisciplinary team of hydrologists, geologists, economists, and engineers led by geologist Bridget Scanlon will analyze the hydrological characteristics and wastewater production of five major shale oil and gas plays across the country. Using data on previous drilling at each play, the team will construct historical wastewater production estimates and then use these baseline analyses to forecast future water use and wastewater volumes. The team will then compare how water needs associated with shale drilling compare to other water demands in different regions and then estimate the potential impact of hydraulic fracturing on contributing to water scarcity in these areas. Additional work will focus on gaining a better scientific understanding of increased seismicity induced by the injection of wastewater into disposal wells.