In the last few years, the U.S. Federal and Washington State governments significantly focused on climate action. In addition to re-joining international climate efforts, President Biden directed U.S. agencies to incorporate the social cost of carbon in their decisions, developed ambitious renewable energy targets, and released the Ocean Climate Plan. In 2022, the U.S. Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act, which included significant support for energy innovation, carbon storage, and energy efficiency. Similarly, in 2021, Washington Legislature passed the Climate Commitment Act, creating the Cap-and-Invest program, which put the price on carbon pollution, and provided support to build climate resilience.

However, the development and deployment of decarbonization technologies have important technological, environmental, social, economic, and legal implications. SMEA faculty, alumni, and students are actively studying these complex challenges.

Faculty

Katie Arkema, Ph.D., SMEA Affiliate Faculty and a Senior Earth Scientist at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) has been working on frameworks to integrate social-ecological systems thinking into energy transitions for coastal communities at two scales, the grid scale with offshore wind energy on the west coast of the United States, and the local scale with remote coastal and island communities. She is collaborating with Makah Tribe and the City of Bainbridge Island as part of the Energy Transitions Initiative Partnership Project to understand the potential for local renewable energy generation to help meet their energy and climate resilience goals.

Andrea Copping, Ph.D., SMEA Affiliate Faculty, has been working at the PNNL since 2006 and largely on marine renewable energy (wave, tidal, and other energy harvest from seawater) and offshore wind since 2009. She leads an international collaboration of 16 nations that examines the potential environmental effects of marine energy to allow for responsible development of this low carbon energy source.  She also leads the engineering and testing program for small scale wave and tidal devices for providing power for isolated coastal communities and islands, and providing power at sea for ocean observation platforms, offshore aquaculture, and extraction of critical minerals from seawater.

Nives Dolšak, Ph.D., SMEA faculty, is examining decarbonization policies, their constraints, and public support. Her recent research projects include studies of public support for wind versus nuclear energy in WA state, public support for Thacker Pass Lithium Mine, the stringency of net-zero emission pledges, and sources of opposition to on-shore wind.

Alumni

Mikaela Freeman (‘15) is based in Oakland, California and works at the PNNL in the Coastal Sciences Division, working on projects that focus on environmental and socio-economic effects, permitting and regulatory processes, co-location with offshore aquaculture, and outreach and engagement with regulators, stakeholders, and communities. She is currently working on OES-Environmental, an international initiative of 16 countries that examines the environmental effects of marine energy and brings together the marine energy community (researchers, developers, and regulators) to help progress the industry in a responsible manner.

Simon Geerlofs, (’05), has been working at the PNNL since 2009. He is a program manager/senior advisor focusing on ocean climate action—which includes offshore renewable energy, decarbonization in the maritime sector and broader blue economy, marine carbon storage, and climate and energy resilient coastal communities. He also worked directly with the Department of Energy’s Wind and Water Power offices to advise on their interagency strategy and partnerships in support of the Ocean Climate Action Plan.

Laura Nelson, Ph.D. (’14) is currently a Postdoc at the PNNL. Since joining the lab in the fall of 2022, she has been working on strategic energy planning with the Makah Tribe through the Energy Transitions Partnership Project, a program that provides technical assistance to remote or island communities seeking to increase their energy resilience. In two other projects, she is working with Katie Arkema investigating interactions between offshore wind and communities on the West Coast and with Mikaela Freeman examining possibilities for the co-location of marine energy and aquaculture in Puget Sound.

Megan (Gilly) Plog (‘19) serves as the Home Energy Score and Home Performance with ENERGY STAR^® manager. Home Performance with ENERGY STAR is a collaborative program with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that helps contractors and energy programs deliver home energy upgrades. Before coming to BTO, Megan worked with the U.S. Department of Energy’s State Energy Program as a federal project officer and as an ORISE Fellow. She also spearheaded the creation of environmental and energy-saving programs in the small mountain town of Frisco, Colorado.

Debbie Rose (’20) works at the PNNL on marine and other renewable energy applications for coastal communities. One of the projects she has been working on recently is exploring how to power kelp and shellfish aquaculture operations with energy from the waves and tides and another supporting Bainbridge Island, WA to reach their goal of 100% renewable electricity by 2040 and others.

Carrie Schmaus (’17) works at the Water Power Technologies Office in the US Department of Energy where she manages the Power at Sea portfolio, a set of projects exploring non-grid applications for marine energy (renewable energy from ocean waves, tides, currents, and salinity, thermal, and pressure gradients). Current projects under the Power at Sea portfolio include using marine energy to power marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR), aquaculture, and ocean observing devices. She is also involved with the group writing standards for marine energy, IEC TC 114 (International Electrotechnical Commission Technical Committee 114), and chairs the US National Committee to the IEC’s Young and Emerging Professionals Committee. Carrie started in the Water Power Technologies Office in 2018 as a NOAA Sea Grant Knauss Fellow.

Current Students

Several current students are deeply immersed in various marine renewable energy projects. Sara Leighton is examining what factors contributed to the development and permitting of tidal energy projects in Cobscook Bay (Maine) and East River (New York). In a PNNL-SMEA capstone project, Ali Alobaid, Jazzmin Fragiacomo, and Rachel Gates are analyzing various developers’ approaches to community engagement in four tidal and wave projects in Cobscook Bay (Maine), Igiugig (Alaska), PacWave (Oregon), and Admiralty Inlet (Washington). Both of these projects are supervised by Professor Nives Dolšak. William Kammin, supervised by Professor of Practice Yoshitaka Ota, is studying environmental and community impacts of future offshore wind developments in Humboldt Bay (California) and Coos Bay (Oregon). Reuben Martinez is learning the Nuu-chah-nulth language to deepen the understanding of the role Wakashan ancestral knowledge and values can play in the design and implementation of marine-based renewable energy systems. Kurt Ellison is analyzing labor equity aspects of Pacific Northwest offshore renewable energy supply chain. Both projects are supervised by Assistant Professor Joshua Griffin. We are all looking forward to their presentations on February 23, May 10, or May 17.