Climate-driven wildfires are increasingly ignited by overhead power lines, prompting utilities to deploy preemptive Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS). Equitably Allocating Wildfire Resilience Investments for Power Grids studies how the Biden Administration’s Justice40 mandate (40 % of federal infrastructure benefits to disadvantaged communities via the CEJST index) actually plays out in a Texas case study […]
“Who breathes cleaner air when Americans put solar panels on their roofs? Using plant-level emissions data, an air-pollution transport model, and census-block demographics, Bobby Harris (Georgia Tech)—the study’s EPIcenter affiliate— and Travis E. Dauwalter (Artera Services) show that today’s rooftop solar fleet delivers $0.77 in environmental benefits per person annually and disproportionately benefits higher-income households. […]
Municipalities have shunned solar farms because these large installations are believed to reduce property values. Now, in a first-of-its-kind study, Georgia Tech economist Laura Taylor shows that utility-scale solar farms don’t adversely affect sales prices for agricultural land. The work, published recently in the journal Land Economics, may help inform local decision-making. “As zoning boards […]
As summers get increasingly hotter, expect more adverse effects on health. EPICenter grant recipient Pengfei Liu is exploring the connection between the two as a necessary step in climate adaptation. The trendlines point in one direction: The ten hottest years on record were all just in this nascent century. Summers, especially, are getting hotter. And […]
Smoke cloud rising from a brush wildfire burning in San Francisco, California (Source: Adobe Stock) You’re managing the Texas Panhandle’s power grid. Heavy winds are blowing, and a worn-out utility pole ignites a fire by crashing onto a transmission line. Luckily, the fire department arrives quickly, putting out the fire before it spreads to nearby […]