Projects
Below are selected current and past research projects that are representative of our group’s work. Visual samples are included for those that are currently up and running. The links to their respective GitHub repositories are also included.
The Virginia Solar initiative
The Virginia Solar Initiative aims to leverage the world-class research, expertise, and resources of the University of Virginia and deliver strategic and technical assistance to localities in order to reduce policy uncertainty related to the siting of renewable energy facilities in Virginia
Photo from Virginia Solar Initiative Homepage
Power Contracting Proposal
The target of this project is to build a system providing both prosumers and consumers with reliable information that can support them in making rational decisions on power contracting. This will involve the creation of flexible and negotiable smart contracts. To build smart contracts, a network will be built that allows interactions and information exchange between different kinds of stakeholders (prosumers, environment and users). An integrated platform that shares information will be developed and provided to all parts of the system.
Virginia Energy Almanac
The Virginia Electricity Almanac is intended to provide an accessible annual summary of Virginia’s electricity system for policy-makers and the public. It will offer a brief, readable recap of trends in power generation, consumption, grid resilience, clean energy, and related topics. It will be designed to help inform discussions about policy choices related to Virginia’s energy economy, including specifically the Commonwealth’s clean energy goals. The creation of this Almanac is necessary because currently there is not a single source containing all the aforementioned basic facts on the state’s energy system. Specific elements of the Almanac will include: A summary of Virginia’s current power generation assets, including specifics on clean energy generation capacity; history and forecasts of Virginia’s power demand; summaries of Virginia’s carbon emissions, focusing emissions from the electric power sector; and brief narrative sections on major developments affecting Virginia’s power system over the past year including new and emerging policy changes and initiatives.
Excerpt from the Almanac
Virginia Clean Economy Dashboard
This project involves building and deploying a dashboard titled the Virginia Clean Economy Dashboard. It is intended for use by the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals, & Energy. It will showcase a variety of energy data in Virginia related to the Virginia Clean Economy Act goals of carbon-free energy generation by 2050. It will detail energy storage and renewable energy generation in Virginia, as well as energy equity (how lower income households are affected by the clean energy transition). It will also provide a breakdown of sources of energy generation in previous years in Virginia, showing where the state gets the majority of its energy (gas, nuclear, etc.). Additionally, it will contain information on energy consumption in Virginia by sector, including which sectors consume the most energy.
Image of the Dashboard Homepage
State Energy Dashboard
The purpose of this project is to build, test, and deploy a Shiny dashboard that offers state-by-state data and visualizations on electricity systems and clean energy progress. Unlike the Virginia Clean Economy Dashboard for the DMME, this dashboard will be developed mostly for internal use within the VA Clean Energy Project team. The goal for this dashboard is to have a collection of presented data from the states in order to compare different states’ approaches/strategies to electricity generation. This will be important moving forward for the team in seeing how Virginia compares to other states in terms of electricity generation strategies and how VA is adjusting its approach in order to reach net carbon neutrality. The dashboard will also be designed to be interactive so that states can be compared based on user-selected variables.