The rapid development of large electricity load sources, like data centers and industrial facilities, is increasing demand for electricity across the United States. Few entities in the energy system experience this pressure as acutely as rural electric cooperatives (co-ops), which tend to have less dense service territories with fewer ratepayers than larger investor-owned utilities or municipal utilities. However, there has been little research to date on how electricity demand growth might impact rural co-op operations.Led by scholars at North Carolina State University and the University of Minnesota, in partnership with the Smart Electric Power Alliance, this project explores the challenges and opportunities for rural co-ops as they respond to rapid electricity demand growth. First, the researchers will investigate how demand growth patterns have varied across co-op service territories over the past few decades. Second, the team will analyze the different strategies that rural co-ops have adopted in response to increased electricity demand, holding focus groups with staff from three generation and transmission co-ops to better understand how they prioritize their electricity growth management strategies. Lastly, they will examine three case studies in more detail to uncover how institutional and governance structures impact rural co-op decision-making and adoption of electricity growth management strategies. The team will produce academic scholarship along with materials designed at informing stakeholder practices and decision-making.

There have been numerous attempts in recent years to spur domestic clean energy manufacturing at both the federal and state level, including the tax incentives, place-based investments, economy-wide tariffs, and other forms of fiscal and policy interventions. A number of states have also provided targeted tax incentives and investment funds to advance clean energy manufacturing. However, researchers and policymakers still need a comprehensive analytic framework to examine how these energy policy interventions, aimed at different scales and industrial sectors, affect clean energy manufacturing dynamics.This grant will support an interdisciplinary research team with scholars from Baruch College, University of California, San Diego, Indiana University, Stony Brook University, and the Center for Strategic and International Studies to create an integrated dataset that combines information on industry investments in clean energy, state-level energy and economic development data, and trade-related information. The team will also undertake two case studies, focused on domestic solar and battery manufacturing across a broad geographic range, to understand the granular dynamics between federal, state, and local investments in clean energy manufacturing and related supply chains. Lastly, the team aims to upgrade the Global Change Assessment Model (GCAM) to improve how clean energy trade-related factors are represented in the model, allowing researchers to study how different policy interventions might shape future clean energy manufacturing dynamics. A workshop with key stakeholders will ensure that practitioner perspectives are integrated throughout the study.

As the expansion of data centers across the United States raises questions about the adequacy of the country’s existing energy supply and infrastructure, many large data centers have begun to consider nuclear power as a potential source of low-carbon electricity. In particular, one proposed solution to meeting the electricity demand growth from data centers is to co-locate this infrastructure with nuclear power generation, whether that be existing nuclear power plants or next-generation nuclear power sources.This grant supports an interdisciplinary research team among scholars based at the University of Michigan, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Pittsburgh Technical to assess how data centers and nuclear power generation be co-located. Following an initial landscaping overview, the team will conduct five case studies to identify current and future locations for data center buildout and quantify their associated electricity demand, analyzing technical, economic, legal, regulatory, and safety dimensions. They will also study alternative business models to assess the viability of co-locating data centers and nuclear power generation. They will also study public responses to the co-location of nuclear power and data centers alongside various legal and safety implications of data center and nuclear power co-location, and they will draw on the expertise of an Advisory Committee to inform the case study site selection and research process.

Despite advancements in clean energy generation, fossil fuels continue to play an important role in the energy system, especially when it comes to providing back-up power generation and ensuring household-level energy security. However, there is limited understanding of how fossil fuels are utilized at the household level to bolster energy resiliency, as well as how natural gas infrastructure is expanding as new homes are connected to the gas grid.Researchers from Arizona State University, Temple University, and University of Pennsylvania, in collaboration with experts at M Cubed Consulting, will map the growth and persistence of natural gas, back-up generation, and deliverable fuel networks across the United States, using permitting information, economic data, and remote sensing information to better understand patterns of adoption for these power sources. The team will also conduct qualitative interviews with industry members to examine the structure and organization of back-up power fossil fuel networks. To complement this analysis, they will undertake two detailed case studies in Phoenix, Arizona and Central Pennsylvania to explore in-depth how such back-up power fossil fuel utilization plays out at the household level in different regions of the country.

Rebuilding after extreme weather events is inevitably a complicated, emotionally fraught process, as homeowners decide whether and how to rebuild their properties. Current policies in the United States favor “like for like” rebuilds that merely replace damaged or destroyed property. However, these policies do not account for preexisting inequities that make some communities more vulnerable to extreme weather or energy insecurity in the first place. In many cases, it would be more beneficial if households could instead improve the overall quality and energy characteristics of their homes during reconstruction, especially as climate-related disasters become more frequent and destructive.Researchers at Stanford University, University of Maryland, College Park, and The Ohio State University will undertake a multi-pronged effort to examine  how existing rebuilding efforts have impacted energy resiliency in three cities in different stages of recovery after extreme weather disasters: Houston, Texas after Hurricane Harvey in 2017; Asheville, North Carolina after Hurricane Helene in 2024; and Los Angeles, California after the Palisades Fire in 2025. The researchers will then partner with local chapters of the American Red Cross (ARC) to design and pilot a novel intervention that will provide households who have lost their homes with tailored resources to facilitate energy efficient rebuilding. This intervention is expected to be a combination of providing targeted information resources along with access to an in-person “rebuilding ambassador” who will help households make better sense of the provided information about their rebuilding options, all with the goal of improving post-disaster rebuilding and climate resilience efforts. The expectation is that this piloted intervention could be subsequently scaled and expanded to other geographies facing similar challenges around the country.

There is a growing need to strengthen the connections between energy system researchers and the network of university energy research centers. To address this challenge, in 2019 representatives from university energy research centers across the United States came together to form the University Energy Institute Leadership Collaborative (UEILC) to strengthen connections between energy system researchers and foster collaboration between different research centers. This grant supports the continued growth of the UEILC network in three ways. First, it will establish a competitive process to identify, select, and fund nine “bridge builder” fellowships to support essential leadership staff at university energy research centers, who are key to the successful operation of these institutions yet often rely on external grants to sustain their roles. These fellowships will be awarded for two years at $20,000 per year. Second, the grant will provide direct support for UEILC annual summit convenings for the next three years, primarily in the form of travel support for meeting attendees. Third, the grant will support the ongoing management of the UEILC Executive Committee to oversee the fellowship program and continue growing the UEILC network.