The University of Iowa: Jumpstart project on decarbonization

College of Engineering

Some updates from Decarb2040 -- Positioning Iowa as an energy exporter in the coming era of deep decarbonization.

Decarb2040 is a one-year research and community building project at the University of Iowa. You are receiving this email update about Decarb2040 because you have come to one of our events, or you have collaborated with someone on the Decarb2040 project team in the past.

Kickoff

On October 8, we kicked off Decarb2040 with a hybrid in-person and remote event. You can view the recording and access the slides presented at our project webpage. At the event, we learned that a strong community need is for industrial partnerships (for research and development) and community partnerships (for community-engaged teaching and learning).

Panel Discussion: Behavioral and public policy research needs for solar energy (Oct 27)

A panel of academic, community, and industry experts will present evolving research on how stakeholders make decisions about adoption of solar at residential and commercial locations. Followed by a Q&A with a focus on future research and policy directions and funding opportunities.

Confirmed panelists:

Chris Hoffman, Vice President of Solar PV Sales, Moxie Solar
Professor Ion “Bodi” Vasi, Sociology and Tippie College of Business
Charlie Nichols, Linn County Planning and Development
Travis Kraus, Iowa Initiative for Sustainable Communities
Rachel Kilburg, City of Iowa City

Date/Time: Wednesday, Oct. 27 @ 12-1:30 pm

Location:

Panelists: Old Capitol Room 2520B
Other Attendees: Zoom

Undergraduates, graduate students, postdocs, staff, and faculty welcome.

Event registration: https://uiowa.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJUocuisrjMsEtJzSTrqmWTRWAAZDpBWupJF

An event in October closely related to Decarb2040: " AR6: Short Lived Climate Forcers in the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report", will be presented by one of the lead authors of the IPCC AR6, Dr. Bhupesh Adhikary, who is an Alumnus of the UI College of Engineering. Sponsored by the College of Engineering in partnership with CGRER and the CASE colloquium series. 8-9 AM, Thur Oct 28, https://uiowa.zoom.us/j/97972163229

December and January – see our website for more info: December will be “Batteries, Hydrogen, Energy Storage & Energy Carriers in the Midwest” and January we will meet about “Decarbonization and rural communities.” More at our project webpage.

Funding Opportunities: Check out the keyword-based funding searches at the bottom of our webpage (requires UI network or VPN).

Community Grant Program: This program by the Office of the Vice President for Research will enable researchers to conduct small/pilot studies that could inform/extend our work. Co-PIs on this project not eligible for community grants, but the wider research community of the University of Iowa is.

$10-25K; two to five awards (up to $50K total in awards)

RFP in Jan 2022. Applications due in Feb 2022. Awards announced in March 2022.

Funded projects expected to be done in 12 months.

Tell Us What You Think: Register your thoughts on Decarbonization and Associated Research Priorities at our Survey

Information about Decarb2040 Email Communications, and Unsubscribing: We will typically send one email per month about Decarb2040 activities, and we will never send more than one a week. To be removed from the email list, please contact charles-stanier@uiowa.edu.

Researcher Profile: Austin Doak

Austin Doak is a researcher, in part funded by Decarb2040. We asked him to share a little about himself.

My research is focused on decarbonization of building thermal control (heating your house) by modeling the costs and CO2 emissions associated with heat pumps compared to conventional natural gas furnaces for residential homes in Iowa. We’ve found that heat pumps’ economic feasibility is highly dependent on the relative prices of electricity and natural gas. As a result of variability in energy prices and increased renewable energy generation, HP systems have transitioned from having lower operating cost and higher emissions than natural gas systems (in 2007) to the exact opposite, having higher operating cost and lower emissions (in 2019).

Fun Facts:

Two of my favorite hobbies are bicycling and playing classical guitar. I have 6 different bicycles and 5 different guitars in my collections.
I love to travel abroad and have the goal of traveling to every continent. So far, I have been to 5 but still need to visit Australia and Antarctica.

Links to our Partners:

State Government

Iowa Economic Development Authority

Energy Companies

University of Iowa Energy Collaborative

Moxie Solar

Agriculture

Practical Farmers of Iowa

Iowa Farmer’s Union

Local government

Linn County

City of Dubuque