Energy Alternatives:
How former CIRES Director Susan Avery positioned CIRESA to tackle one of the globe's greatest challenges
“I see CIRES increasingly taking on a role as a facilitator of interdisciplinary research that tackles major questions of societal relevance and need.”
So wrote former CIRES Director Susan Avery a decade ago in the book CIRES, 1967–2002, written to commemorate CIRES’s 35th anniversary.
Ten years later, a new research proposal at CIRES promises to more than fulfill Avery’s prophecy: the CIRES Energy and Environment Initiative.
The mission of the CIRES Initiative is to study the environmental effects of present and future energy solutions—among them, renewable energy applications. “CIRES’s strengths lend themselves to looking at such an interdisciplinary problem as renewable energy,” Avery said. “CIRES brings together top-notch scientists from many disciplines to think creatively about the environment from a holistic point of view.”
Also, CIRES’s connections with other national institutes—NOAA, the National Renewable Energy Laboratories (NREL), and the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)—are invaluable in examining renewable energy sources, Avery said. Coupling the resources available from these institutes with CIRES’s expertise in the environmental sciences will allow scientists to explore not only alternative energy sources, but also the environmental impact of those sources, she said.
Even the most innocent-looking energy sources can have impacts on the environment, Avery said. Wind farms, for example, might have a negative impact on wildlife habitats, and increased crop production for biofuels could lead to soil degradation.
“There is a big difference between pilot testing a renewable energy solution and bringing it up to scale for commercial production,” Avery said, “and you really have to look carefully at the environmental risks of bringing it up to scale.”
Science serving society
The time for solutions is now. In October 2011, the planet’s population topped 7 billion people.
Seven billion people—most using fuel to cook food, heat (or cool) houses, and travel to and from work.
Currently, most of humanity’s energy needs are met by fossil fuels—petroleum, coal, and natural gas—which can have negative consequences for the planet. Also, since the world may one day run out of these fossil fuels, “we need to be looking at renewable energy sources as additional options for our energy portfolio,” Avery said.
Enter the new CIRES initiative to study the environmental effects of future energy solutions. CIRES is uniquely positioned for such an initiative, said CIRES Fellow Joost de Gouw, as CIRES research covers most of the affected environments (air quality, climate, cryosphere, ecosystems, meteorology, oceans, soils, solid earth, and water resources).
CIRES scientists have also already studied the environmental effects of existing energy sources for years. For example, they have investigated the emissions from refineries; coal- and gas-fired power plants; and automobiles and trucks. The institute’s research has also looked into how those emissions react chemically to form pollutants such as ozone and aerosol. “To extend this work to future energy solutions is a natural progression that ties into CIRES’s strengths,” de Gouw said.
The initiative focuses initially on environmental impacts of natural gas production and biofuels. Society increasingly uses ethanol as a fuel in vehicles, de Gouw said. As ethanol is made from corn and other crops, producing it requires agricultural lands, water, and fertilizers to grow—all of which can affect the environment, he said.
“We’d like to understand these effects so society can make an informed decision whether or not ethanol is a good choice for the future,” de Gouw said. “The same is true for other future energy sources.”
Building the foundation
CIRES’s ability to pioneer the Energy and Environment Initiative is thanks in no small part to Avery’s legacy as director.
During her tenure (1994–2004), Avery facilitated new interdisciplinary research efforts spanning the geological, social, and biological sciences; founded the Center for Science and Technology Policy Research; and established the CIRES Innovative Research Program designed to provide seed money for inventive, sometimes unconventional research. “That really allowed the scientists to think outside the box a little bit, push the envelope, and feed new ideas,” Avery said. “Innovative thinking is a requirement when we are facing these great challenges.”
Now, as the president and director of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Massachusetts, Avery continues to champion both investigation into renewable energy sources and the environmental impacts of using those sources. “There is always an impact when you do commercial production,” Avery said. “The real question is how people might be able to minimize that impact and restore the environment.”
“That is a question that CIRES is uniquely positioned to address,“ Avery said.
