OISE-0832751 Jonathan Miles, James Madison U.
This award is made as part of OISE?s NSF International Planning Visit program and will support travel on two occasions of a team of faculty members from James Madison University (JMU) to meet with their counterparts at the University of Malta (UM) in Malta for the purpose of planning and initiating an interdisciplinary, collaborative research project on ?Land Use Considerations and Siting Assessment for Renewable Energy Facilities.? (The term ?siting? is used within the renewable energy industry to denote the process of identifying, evaluation, and selecting the best locations for renewable energy systems with the intention of minimizing impacts to water supply and other resources.) This focus is especially timely given the challenges that exist in both nations with respect to siting of large-scale renewable energy projects and the opportunity for an interdisciplinary and trans-national research team to develop appropriate tools and strategies that could further a broad understanding how to optimize renewable energy sites. The visits proposed will enable a diverse team of JMU and UM faculty members to engage, in Malta, in a structured program of research preparation that would be difficult to undertake by remote means. In particular, these visits will entail in depth discussions for the purpose of outlining and organizing the collaborative research project, to identify and assess the appropriate resources on the UM campus, and to visit the sites throughout Malta, where parts of the research project will be conducted.
INTELLECTUAL MERIT This project will lead to development of a tool that considers land use issues and constraints, and provides a quantitative means to assess the suitability of sites for renewable facilities, is inherently interdisciplinary and must factor (i) impacts on agriculture, water quality, the coastal and marine environments and other natural resources; (ii) benefits to air quality by virtue of emission offsets; (iii) diversification of the energy portfolio; (iv) economic impacts and social justice concerns; and (vi) legal considerations and constraints.
BROADER IMPACTS This project will provide the motivation to support collaborative research efforts between JMU and UM that will subsequently inform a steady stream of new case studies, and also provide exceptional opportunities for world-class, interdisciplinary, collaborative research between the two partnered institutions to develop. A strong component of this project and all future collaboration includes international research training for students, both graduate and undergraduate.
