Title

Renewable Energy Transitions

Relevance

The Renewable Energy Transitions project (led by Dr. Richard Stedman, Cornell Department of Natural Resources and the Environment) addresses the issue of large scale solar siting and its potential impact on the environment, economy, and social well-being of communities. The project has generated a significant amount of publications, presentations, and strengthened connections with county-based Cooperative Extension (CCE) educators interested in this topic, as well as other researchers and extension educators around the country doing related work. The project has contributed to ongoing dialogue within state agencies and among several policy stakeholders on certain aspects of the economic, environmental-land use, and social implications of current solar policies. The project has also built the capacity of NYS Extension Educators to support more well-informed decision making by residents, farmers, landowners, advocates, developers, and officials in their counties. The project's primary impact has been in the counties in which they work, mostly those in which large scale solar projects are being sited, but they have also engaged and continue to actively engage with other applied researchers, educators, and policy makers on this topic with state, multi-state, and national perspectives and responsibilities. The project has helped frame some of the many issues associated with solar development and provided a foundation for better-informed discussion, dialogue, and decision making about large-scale solar in many communities.

Response

Our work has contributed to ongoing dialogue within state agencies and among several policy stakeholders on certain aspects of the economic, environmental-land use, and social implications of current solar policies. Based largely on the strength of this work, the PhD student working on this project was hired by a national lab (Lawrence Berkeley Lab/DOE) to play a leading role in social science research on related topics nationally. Some of the coalition of researchers, policy makers, and advocates with whom we engaged have routinely cited, drawn on, or asked us about our work, perhaps most notably to our knowledge the American Farmland Trust and NYSERDA. This project enabled us to start to build the capacity of NYS Extension Educators to support more well-informed decision making by residents, farmers, landowners, advocates developers and officials in their counties. While a direct line to better economic, environmental, and social outcomes is hard to draw, we believe that our work will indeed help create better projects, especially in consideration of some of the social issues involved.During this time, there was growing interest in the topic of large-scale solar siting, and increasingly in the potential for what has begun to be called agrivoltaics. While we provided many presentations directly, our primary strategy became to work with and support an increasingly well-organized group of Extension educators interested in the topic in order to build their capacity to engage effectively with their county-based stakeholders. We shared in conversation and presentations over time much of what we had learned with them, both informally and because of our formal analyses. The latter explored, among other topics, the differences in up/downstate perceptions and the effects of perceived equity on support or opposition for large scale solar. Our primary impact has been in the counties in which they work, mostly those in which large scale solar projects are being sited. However, we have also engaged and continue to actively engage with other applied researchers, educators, and policy makers on this topic with state, multi-state and national perspectives. and responsibilities.The project did not routinely employ any formal quantitative evaluation measures beyond debriefing about presentations in which we were co-organizers.

Results

Our target audience was extension educators (especially those with solar project proposals in their communities); they were our primary target precisely because of their ability to interact on a more routine basis with their community members. Work by project team members in collaboration with Extension educator leaders has built the knowledge base of interested educators, helped them be more responsive to a "hot" issue in many of their communities, and enabled a significant outreach effort to be undertaken on this topic throughout the Extension system and most heavily impacted parts of NYS. The benefits of this to the educators has not been formally assessed, but the sustained involvement of many of them with this topic and our team over time is a good indicator of the benefit.

Public Value Statement

With the passage in NYS of climate and renewable electricity facility siting legislation during this project, solar electricity generation has moved from side to center stage in many NY counties. While many concerns have been raised, the focus has of late turned especially to the competition for rural land and the extent to which farming and solar can be compatible. While research into the potential for agrivoltaics is barely in its infancy, insofar as possible, our efforts have helped frame some of many issues associated with solar development and provided a foundation for better informed discussion, dialogue and decision making about large scale solar in many communities. Because we have had regular interactions with local, state and federal agencies on the subject of solar and our work, we also expect the public could benefit from better informed policy on this topic as well.

Primary Focus Area

Energy & Bioproducts

Secondary Focus Area

Youth, Family, & Communities

Impact Statement