The Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment (iSEE) is announcing a call for proposals to support interdisciplinary research, visioning, and planning activities on ambitious topics related to sustainability, energy, and environment.
iSEE seed funds are available to promote research collaborations among faculty and scientists across campus and to raise the national visibility of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the research team in the topic area. The specific goal of the funding is to expedite the coalescence of interdisciplinary, interdepartmental research teams that touch on any of the thematic areas of interest to iSEE and to develop multiple strong, large-scale (>$1M) proposals that can be submitted for external funding through the Institute in 2024-25.
Three types of proposals are invited:
Seed Research projects are limited to a maximum of $30,000 for one year. Funding may support research assistantships for graduate students, postdoc time, data purchase, travel, and/or other necessary expenses that support growth of the initiative. Read more about recently funded projects here >>>
Campus as a Living Laboratory (CALL) projects are limited to a maximum of $30,000 for one year. CALL projects link faculty-level researchers to sites or initiatives on campus that are relevant to objectives in the Illinois Climate Action Plan (iCAP). CALL researchers are also expected to leverage the seed funding to develop interdisciplinary external funding proposals through iSEE. Read more about the CALL program here >>>
Visioning and Planning Activities are limited to a maximum of $50,000 (total) spread over two years. Funding may support workshops and planning meetings hosted by the project team, in addition to activities similar to Seed Research and CALL projects. Funding in Year 2 is contingent upon meaningful progress in Year 1.
All proposals must involve applicants from at least two different disciplines and two different campus units. NOTE: Building on the recent Summit on Building Interdisciplinary Collaborative Research on Sustainability: Incorporating Social and Behavioral Science (jointly hosted by iSEE and the Center for Social and Behavioral Science, CSBS), proposal teams led by or that include CSBS-affiliated faculty are specifically encouraged.
Successful applicants for the seed funding and CALL projects will be expected to submit external funding proposals related to this seed funding through iSEE* in 2024-25. Applicants for Visioning and Planning Activities proposal will be expected to explain how their activities will promote multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional collaborations that need a long lead time to develop a team to submit a proposal for a large team-based Center-type grant.
*Successful external funding proposals submitted through iSEE will not affect indirect cost recovery to the home department of the PI. iSEE will provide personnel support for event planning, proposal development, and, in the case of successful external proposals, post-award management. Recipients will also work with iSEE to communicate the findings of their activities, research, publications, and other outcomes through the Institute website on an ongoing basis.
Guidelines for Preparing the Proposal
Proposals are invited from tenured/tenure track faculty and research scientists. Postdocs are not eligible to apply. The proposal will be submitted through an online portal with text boxes for the following sections:
Project title
Principal and co-investigator information (names, affiliations, and email addresses)
Abstract [up to 150 words]
Motivation and Opportunity [up to 500 words]
Describe the scholarly merit, innovation, and substantive interdisciplinarity of the proposed research
Describe the need for collaboration and the contributions of each of the team members to tackle the problem at hand
Plan for Seed Funding [up to 600 words]
Describe specific plans for use of seed funding and potential impact on national visibility and growth of the initiative
Describe the potential to develop a large-scale (>$1M), externally funded research program, including comprehensive plan with specific funding opportunities (anticipated in 2024-2025) which the applicants will pursue
Summarize any previous efforts to secure external funding for this research
Productivity of the applicants and quality of their scholarship
The fit to iSEE’s research themes and interest in a longer-term engagement with iSEE to develop research programs in this area
Additionally, a single compiled PDF with the following documents for the principal investigator (PI) and co-investigators (co-Is) is required:
a CV (up to three pages) that includes five most relevant recent publications and five other publications; template here >>>
a summary of all internal and external current and pending research funding; template here >>>
an itemized budget. NSF- or NIH-style documents can be used for the CV and current and pending funding; template here >>>
The deadline for proposal submissions is 5 p.m. Friday, Dec. 1, 2023, uploaded to the OVCRI Special Programs site.
Applicants will be informed about final funding decisions by mid-December, with a start date for funding beginning or after Jan. 1, 2024.
Questions about this RFP may be addressed to Heidi Leerkamp, iSEE Lead Proposal Developer, at leerkamp@illinois.edu.
The Institute for Sustainability, Energy and Environment (iSEE) invites proposals to organize a Critical Conversation on a topic that presents a complex sustainability challenge that has different interest groups that would be affected by possible solutions. Preference will be given to topics of regional significance with international relevance.
A Critical Conversation is a facilitated, constructive, and inclusive discourse, under the Chatham House Rule, among individuals that bring widely differing perspectives. A successful Critical Conversation often has the outcome of clarifying a research agenda to find effective solutions that address the problem. A Critical Conversation requires curation of an invited list of participants well informed about the topic from industry, academia, government, and non-governmental or community-based organizations to share their viewpoints on a complex, multi-faceted, coupled human-environment problem and identify potential technical, market and policy pathways for finding a solution.
The proposing team works closely with the Institute, which will provide organizational support to hold the Critical Conversation. iSEE staff will work with the proposing team to convene planning meetings, invite a keynote speaker, panelists, and participants, and organize the venue and travel. The Institute will also arrange for an external moderator to facilitate the conversation. All direct costs for the event will be borne by iSEE.
The deadline to fill out the online submission form is Nov. 17, 2023. The event will be scheduled for Fall 2024 with planning meetings beginning early Spring 2024.
Tyler Swanson, left, and fellow cohort members present to the Champaign City Council in 2022. Credit: Mark Herman, iSEE
Andres Vazquez, left, and members of ELP team discuss environmental policy with state Rep. Marcus Evans in 2022. Credit: Mark Herman, iSEE
Spring 2023 marked the wrap-up of the second year of iSEE’s Environmental Leadership Program (ELP), the University of Illinois’ first and only developmental program centered on environmental policy and legislative advocacy. Just two years after its launch, ELP students have already achieved success within and beyond the program — contributing to state and local efforts to curb harmful waste, landing top internships in state government, and winning national recognition for their public service.
The ELP grants students a considerable amount of freedom in what types of policies they pursue throughout the entire process. They select environmental issues that spark both interest and passion, and they have the choice to advocate for environmental issues at the State Capitol in Springfield, develop and deliver presentations at Urbana and Champaign City Council meetings, or tackle policies at both the local and state levels.
The 2022 and ’23 cohorts focused on 10 different state bills and three local policy matters covering a wide variety of subjects. Students worked on topics ranging from environmental justice to nuclear construction, microfiber filtration, and housing rehabilitation, among others. Providing students with the opportunity to meet with legislators and initiate discussions on subjects that they deeply care about can spark tangible change at all levels.
Tyler Swanson, part of the 2022 ELP cohort, opted to work at the local level, advocating for the adoption of a plastic bag tax in the city of Urbana. Urbana City Council Member Grace Wilken, who collaborated with Swanson on that effort, said it is always “important to have constituents who reach out,” since public input is often the driving force behind conversations about policy change.
SWANSON
Swanson’s commitment to the cause, however, extended beyond his participation in the ELP. After completing the program, he continued to work with Wilken and Urbana’s Sustainability Officer Scott Tess to advance the project further. Swanson had the opportunity to collaborate and share resources with city officials and present their findings to the Urbana Sustainability Commission.
Urbana’s local government has continued conversations about this initiative. Wilken said the plastic bag tax has general support, but the city needs to find a way to work with the city of Champaign to implement it. “It’s a matter of how we can actually do it, not whether or not to do it.” Swanson feels both proud and optimistic about these efforts, adding that his group was “successful in getting an idea from being just policy on a factsheet to actually getting some strong conversation … at the municipal level.”
ELP students have also seen success with their advocacy efforts in Springfield during the past couple of state legislative sessions. One of the 2023 ELP groups focused its efforts on House Bill 2376 (EPA — Disposable Food Containers), which aimed to ban the use of polystyrene containers in restaurants. The bill successfully passed the Illinois House of Representatives just one week after the cohort’s visit to Springfield.
MAZA
“It was rewarding to see that the representatives in the House saw (polystyrene production and overuse) as an important problem that needed to be addressed,” said group member Ayden Maza. While acknowledging that his group may have played only a small role in getting this legislation passed, Maza is grateful that he was “able to at least inform legislators about the bill and put it on their radar. Being able to say that a bill I worked on passed the Illinois House is amazing,” he said.
HB 2376 is currently stalled in the Senate until next session, but Senate Bill 58 (Degradable Plastic — Single Use), which requires state agencies and universities to reduce polystyrene use starting in 2025, passed both chambers and was signed into law by Gov. J.B. Pritzker in August 2023. The HB 2376 group found it exciting that a bill so similar to theirs was approved by the Governor. As Maza put it, “It’s a good feeling to know Illinois is taking a step in the right direction. Any win for sustainability is a win.”
The program has also been widely beneficial for students’ own professional and academic development. Cohort members have been able to hone their skills and utilize them in other aspects of their lives, finding success as a direct result of these experiences.
NIFONG
Recent Illinois graduate Lucy Nifong, who was part of the 2023 ELP cohort, worked on House Bill 1568 (Right to Recreate), which proposed an expansion of the definition of navigable waters to include water bodies supporting both commercial and recreational use. Nifong said the experience surpassed her expectations, and the skills she learned from the ELP have assisted both her academic and professional careers.
She is currently working as a Dunn Fellow at the Office of the Governor of Illinois, which gives recent college graduates a year of hands-on experience working for different state agencies and units within the Governor’s office. She felt prepared for this role because of the experience she gained during the ELP reviewing legislation, communicating with representatives, and understanding the nexus between state agencies and the General Assembly. Upon completion of her fellowship, Nifong hopes to study environmental law and pursue a legal career in government. Overall, she said, the ELP experience was “invaluable.”
Swanson, who focused on policy as an undergraduate in Agricultural and Consumer Economics, said the ELP gave him a “behind-the-scenes look” at how municipal policy is implemented. Now a master’s student in geography at the University of Arizona, he is still putting his ELP skills to use in his research on environmental policies and practices that can accelerate the transition to a more sustainable economy.
“Policy advocacy is for anybody. All it takes is a little bit of willingness to get out there and contact people,” Swanson said.
VAZQUEZ
Other ELP alumni have been recognized nationally for their efforts. Andres Vazquez, who was part of the ELP in 2022, continues to work as an intern for the program. And in August 2023, Vazquez was named a recipient of the Obama-Chesky Voyager Scholarship for Public Service. Only 100 students nationwide receive this prestigious award, which strives to develop and empower future leaders to create meaningful change.
Vazquez attributes a significant portion of his career growth in public service to the Environmental Leadership Program. “The ELP allowed me to speak for an environmental justice community that has a similar history to my own neighborhood in Chicago. Being able to advocate for these neglected communities launches me further toward a career of helping others through public service,” he says. As a Voyager Scholar, he plans to continue working to help others, especially those who “face insurmountable obstacles toward environmental injustice.”
These success stories will likely multiply as the ELP expands its focus to include corporate sustainability and, eventually, federal policy. In Spring 2024, ELP students will have the opportunity to work with businesses in Chicago that are adopting sustainable practices. The goal is to “get students to engage with leaders in these areas and understand how to advocate and support environmental sustainability,” said Eric Green, iSEE’s Senior Academic Program Instructor/Advisor, who leads the ELP.
Giving students the tools to work on advocacy and the opportunity to do it is a powerful combination, Green said, allowing them to “take ownership of what their future is going to look like. They can understand that, honestly, it’s totally within their grasp to do that. The actual part where students recognize that they have power and can use that to make change is the thing that always excites me.”
— Article by iSEE Communications Intern Kratika Tandon
An examination of the importance of centering Indigenous experiences when serving their communities, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign undergraduate Vivian La’s article was the grand prize winner in the fourth annual Janelle Joseph Prize for Environmental Writing through the Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment (iSEE).
In total, four U of I students won awards in the contest this year. In addition to receiving cash prizes, their work will be published in upcoming issues of Q Magazine.
Since the summer of 2020, Q Magazine’s generous benefactor, Janelle Joseph, has sponsored the Environmental Writing Contest.
The contest received a dozen entries this year. Entrants competed for cash prizes and the chance to have their work published in Q, a student-written, professionally curated publication of the undergraduate Certificate in Environmental Writing (CEW) program. The magazine tackles big environmental questions, such as the complicated relationships between humans and the species we share our planet with, battles for environmental justice, and the everyday items that clog our waste stream.
“Knowledge is Power,” by La, a senior in Journalism, took the $1,000 grand prize. An excerpt from an interview in her piece:
“Contextual engineering is just listening to people. I think if we can start respecting that and appreciating that, then not only will the field of engineering change, but you’ll just give everyone an appreciation of the communities around them.”
Other winners:
Levi Beckett, a senior in Media and Cinema Studies, won the Memoir Prize with “Ego, Id, and the Flood.”
Sakshi Vaya, a senior in Earth, Society, and Environmental Sustainability, won the At Illinois Prize with “Why We Waste.”
Abby Culloton, a senior in Civil and Environmental Engineering, won the Feature Prize with “Blinded Me with Citizen Science.”
In addition to the four prize winners, one honorable mention award was selected. Helen Anil, a junior in both Accounting and Environmental Science, will have the opportunity to be published in an upcoming Q Magazine for “Thumbi Vaa — A Dragonfly’s Invitation.”
“Our latest crop of Janelle Joseph Writing Competition prizewinners is among the best ever,” said CEW Director Gillen Wood, Robert W. Schaefer Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences in the Department of English. “The winning stories, from students across the Illinois campus, range from environmental justice in the American West, to a deep dive on food waste, to the amazing potential of citizen science. These annual prize-winning stories are typical of the hard-hitting reporting we’re seeing from our Certificate in Environmental Writing students, and a tribute to Janelle Joseph for her continuing, generous support to reward and encourage them.
“Janelle is a valued member of our iSEE family, and we can’t thank her enough for her commitment to our undergraduates.”
The writing contest, which will be offered again next spring and summer, is open to Illinois undergraduates from any major and geared toward those with an interest in writing and the environment.
TOP: iSEE Director Madhu Khanna with Joel Friedman, President of the Alvin H. Baum Family Fund. ABOVE: College of ACES Dean Germán Bollero, Khanna, and Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation Susan Martinis. Credits: Julie Wurth, iSEE
Urbana, Ill. — Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment (iSEE) Director Madhu Khanna was officially appointed the Alvin H. Baum Family Fund Chair on Oct. 12, 2023, at an investiture ceremony at the Funk ACES Library on the University of Illinois campus.
Khanna, the ACES Distinguished Professor in Environmental Economics in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics, has been iSEE Director since July 2022 but has been a leader at the Institute since its inception in December 2013, first as Associate Director for Education & Outreach, then as Associate Director for Research, and then as Interim Director in 2020. Named chairs are important in marking the success of high-achieving faculty, and they are among the highest honors a university can bestow.
“I am honored and humbled to be named the Alvin H. Baum Family Chair,” Khanna said. “Environment and sustainability have been at the core of my research at the University of Illinois. As the Alvin H. Baum Family Chair and iSEE Director, I look forward to continuing to work with colleagues across campus to advance the Baum Family legacy and position iSEE to have a societal impact in the area of sustainability. This recognition reaffirms university support for the pathbreaking work being done by iSEE to advance sustainability on our campus and beyond.”
The Alvin H. Baum Family Fund is the founding benefactor of the Institute and continues to support iSEE educational missions such as the Environmental Leadership Program and outreach programs such as the annual iSEE Congress and Critical Conversations. The Fund, administered by Joel Friedman and Loretta Namovic, is committed to bettering the lives of people through health, human services, education, housing, environmental issues, and the arts.
“We are delighted Dr. Khanna is the second holder of the Alvin H. Baum Family Fund Chair,” Friedman said. “We would note as well that we all owe a debt of gratitude to Wes Jarell for his role as Director of the predecessor Environmental Change Institute.
“Madhu’s outstanding history of research, education, and service to the UIUC community and beyond and to the fields of sustainability, environment, and energy make her the perfect fit for this position. Her spirit of collaboration and her interest in innovation make her a wonderful leader. We have witnessed over the years how her peers in and outside of the University have collaborated with her and respected her, and we are grateful for her work and dedication to the mission of iSEE.”
Khanna has been at Illinois since 1995. Her research examines why producers adopt innovative production technologies to meet demands for food and fuel, such as precision farming, biofuels, and participation in conservation programs. Her work informs stakeholders and policy makers about the cost-effectiveness of various policy approaches to improve environmental quality and their implications for farm profitability, land use, and food and fuel production.
Khanna with daughter Tanvi and husband Pradeep after the investiture.
Khanna served as President of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (AAEA) in 2021 and ’22. She has co-edited two volumes of the Handbook of Bioenergy Economics and Policy, and she has served on the Science Advisory Board of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and on the editorial boards of several leading journals. An accomplished scholar and educator, she co-leads the Center for the Economics of Sustainability, served for five years as the Sustainability Theme Leader at the $268M Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation (CABBI), is the lead investigator for a $10M USDA-funded agrivoltaics project for Sustainably Colocating Agricultural and Photovoltaic Electricity Systems (SCAPES), and has helped found a new Agroecosystem Sustainability Center (ASC) on campus. She has authored more than 170 articles and mentored dozens of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of California Berkeley.
Khanna succeeds Founding Director Evan H. DeLucia at iSEE, which is focused on supporting actionable, interdisciplinary research, educating the next generation of sustainability experts, and moving the campus toward carbon neutrality and a more sustainable future. Since 2013, iSEE has led the development of two Illinois Climate Action Plans. The Institute has sought innovative funding methods for campus sustainability improvements, pushed forward 75 acres of on-campus solar, supported several geothermal projects, and advocated for the purchase of significant off-campus solar and wind power. iSEE has also established, through partnership with academic units, several student learning opportunities. And, as one of the university’s most prominent research institutes, iSEE has helped facilitate more than $320M in sponsored research funding, including most recently a $147.5M CABBI renewal and the USDA-funded Farm of the Future (Illinois Farming and Regenerative Management, I-FARM).
“Dr. Khanna’s vision for iSEE is remarkable, and she’s put that vision into action. Because of iSEE, the University is a national leader in sustainability,” said Susan Martinis, the Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation at Illinois at the time of Khanna’s director appointment. “The Institute has helped bring in some of the university’s most innovative and important research projects, and iSEE has also established, through partnership with academic units, a campuswide sustainability fellows minor as well as an undergraduate certificate in environmental writing. Madhu’s commitment and drive have positioned iSEE well for even further growth and impact in the future.”
— Tony Mancuso, iSEE Communications & Public Affairs Director
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is already past the halfway point from Illinois Climate Action Plan 2020 to iCAP 2025. It’s time to check in with each of the iCAP topical chapters to gauge campus progress, address the challenges our campus faces, and celebrate some achievements. To begin our series, iSEE Communications Intern Gabe Lareau examines the Energy chapter to see if the university community is on track to reach its goal of net zero carbon by 2050. View the full series >>>
An aerial view of Solar Farm 2.0 at sunrise. Credit: University of Illinois
There is a reason “Energy” is the first chapter in the Illinois Climate Action Plan (iCAP). Its generation — which is still largely based in fossil fuels here at the University of Illinois, in the United States, and globally — is the largest greenhouse gas emitter by a wide, and increasingly unsustainable, margin: nearly 75% globally according to Our World in Data.
It should come as no surprise that generating enough electricity to charge everyone’s laptops, light up Memorial Stadium, and keep the lab fume hoods running is a Herculean effort. We Illini require enough Joules — 3.9 quadrillion — to sustain 25,000 households. And while that means we’re able to stay warm in the winter, it also carries with it the unfortunate reality that campus is an enormous tailpipe for greenhouse gases and a significant contributor to climate change. In 2019, 86% of the university’s carbon emissions came solely from our energy use.
Campus’ most visible example of carbon emissions is that towering smokestack on Oak Street, a block from the Ikenberry Commons. Abbott Power Plant has been campus’ main energy co-generation facility since its construction in 1941. Co-generation because, in addition to providing steam heat directly to 23.7 million square feet of floor space, it supplies a lot of campus electricity. To be fair, without that co-generation, our carbon emissions would be much higher. But Abbott burns both natural gas and a small and declining amount of coal to satisfy a whopping 70-75% of the energy demand on campus, marking it as campus’ largest greenhouse gas emitter.
The University of Illinois campus has made significant strides in building new sources of renewable energy, cutting energy demand, and making existing facilities more efficient. But work remains in minimizing campus square footage growth, maximizing renewable energy output, and finding a source of clean thermal power.
Herein lies the good and bad news for the Energy iCAP Team. Thirteen years ago, when the original iCAP was signed, campus energy was provided entirely by fossil fuels and grid-purchased electricity. Since then, working with Facilities & Services (F&S) and with some funding support from the Student Sustainability Committee (SSC), the Energy Team has seen campus increase renewable-power use to 12%, which is nearly a percent every year on average.
With the second revision of the iCAP in 2015, Solar Farm 1.0 officially came online. This 21-acre, 18,867-panel solar array along Windsor Road generates 2% of campus electricity demand and offers a nice visual indicator of where the U of I stands on its commitment to renewables. It numbers among the country’s largest on-campus solar fields, though it pales in comparison to its successor.
More than twice as big as Solar Farm 1.0 and responsible for tripling campus’ renewable electricity generation is Solar Farm 2.0. Combined with the university’s Rail Splitter Wind Farm Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) and other renewable campus building installations — rooftop solar, geothermal systems, and a biomass boiler at the Energy Farm among others — this massive solar field has made significant strides in weaning campus off fossil fuels as an energy source since it came online in January 2021.
These advancements in campus renewable energy are surely cause for celebration, and it’s clear to all involved that they must continue if the university is to reach its iCAP goal of net zero carbon by 2050. In 2021, campus reached its 2025 greenhouse emission goal four years early — a massive step in the right direction, albeit likely because of the campus’ shutdown during the COVID pandemic. The iCAP’s objectives to keep this momentum going, while numerous, are categorically twofold: mitigation and transformation.
As most of campus energy is currently supplied via fossil fuels, it’s in the university’s — and the climate’s — best interest to reduce, and certainly not further increase, its energy use. Objectives within the iCAP touch on this across a variety of areas: reducing Energy Use Intensity of university facilities (2.2); improving space efficiency (2.2.1); and reducing energy consumption at each college-level unit (2.2.2).
According to the Energy Team, these goals can be most effectively fulfilled by following the university’s Net Zero Space Growth Policy and through the Facilities & Services’ Retrocommissioning, Systems and Controls, and Energy Performance Contracting teams. These groups are the university’s most effective way to simultaneously mitigate energy use and maximize efficiency.
As the unsung climate heroes of campus, Retrocommissioning team members retrofit campus buildings to increase their efficiency and reduce operating costs. That might include repairing or replacing Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) components, adding temperature controls and occupancy sensors, installing new ductwork, and more.
Energy savings in newly retrocommissioned buildings usually hover around 20% per year, according to the Energy Team. This not only prevents literal tons of carbon emissions but saves the university millions of dollars a year.
A Facilities & Services retrocommissioning team at the State Farm Center. Credit: F&S
Construction of new spaces on campus, too, affects energy demand; the more buildings there are, the more energy campus will use. That’s why, in accordance with the iCAP 2010, the university adopted a Net Zero Space Growth Policy in 2015. In sum: for every square foot of space constructed, an equal amount must be removed.
Instead, F&S estimates that the built square footage of campus will increase by 278,000 by 2030. New, perhaps emission-heavy, energy will have to supply those spaces. However, new campus construction projects will be more efficient than in years past, as Illinois state law requires new buildings to be certified at the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) silver level. Many campus buildings have even gone beyond that — the Electrical and Computer Engineering Building (ECE) and Business Instructional Facility (BIF) are both LEED platinum, the former being a net zero building altogether.
Fortunately, even with the addition of new buildings, campus electricity use has been on the decline. This is thanks in part to the university’s commitment to LED bulbs, F&S Utilities & Energy Services’ conservation programs, improvements in technology, changes at the campus supercomputing facility, and fantastic student programs like Illini Lights Out, which turned off almost 40,000 bulbs during the 2022-23 academic year, saving 47 tons of CO2 emissions. The efforts of individual campus members are an essential piece of the overall campus effort as well. Even though turning off your lights or air conditioner when they’re not needed may seem insignificant, all that saved energy adds up quickly.
The rest of the iCAP 2020’s energy objectives deal with how the university generates its energy, which includes electricity (power) as well as heating and cooling (thermal energy). The iCAP details rather ambitious goals of 15% campus-wide clean energy by 2030 (2.3), with at least 140,000 MWh/year of clean power by 2025 (2.3.1), and 150,000 British Thermal Units’ (MMBTU) worth of clean thermal energy by 2030 (2.3.2).
For the objective regarding campus renewable energy, the latest figures available are from iCAP 2020, which reported about 3% of total campus power use coming from renewable sources — mostly the Rail Splitter Wind PPA and Solar Farm 1.0. Keep in mind, this was before Solar Farm 2.0 came online. Since Solar Farm 2.0 triples campus renewable power output, the university supplied 9% of its electrical demand from renewables as of 2021.
To reach the overall 15% clean energy target within the next seven years will require additional large-scale projects equivalent to Solar Farm 2.0. Recognizing this, the Energy Team has said that the possibility of the university entering a power-purchase agreement with an off-campus Solar Farm 3.0 is increasing.
As another clean energy alternative, a separate team has proposed a campus nuclear microreactor and is developing a construction permit — part of a lengthy implementation process. Previously, the TRIGA Mark II nuclear reactor operated safely on campus for nearly 40 years; new safety features on a microreactor can “withstand the worst possible accidents without the need for active intervention,” according to project head Caleb Brooks, Associate Professor of Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering. Or, as former Energy Team member Tyler Swanson put it, “This isn’t your grandpa’s nuclear reactor.”
Other projects that offers promise are geothermal heating and cooling networks at the new Steven S. Wymer Hall and Doris Kelly Christopher Extension Building. If approved, they would further increase the university’s renewable energy profile and set an example for other college-level units to follow.
Various green energy projects, mostly small-scale solar, have also been proposed to the Student Sustainability Committee that would further the university’s 15% renewables objective.
Several graduate students have cataloged more than 178 campus buildings that could be fitted with their own solar arrays, as space for on-campus solar fields is in short supply. The Energy Team is looking into the possibility of rooftop solar at the Education Building. And the Activities and Recreation Center, with its large footprint and bare roof, consistently comes up as a viable candidate for more rooftop solar — a possibility that Campus Recreation Assistant Director of Facility Operations Mike Merriman has expressed interest in.
Abbott Power Plant supplies 70-75% of campus energy demand. Credit F&S
Another building consistently tagged as a potential location for a solar array is Abbott Power Plant. Though still conjecture at this point, rooftop solar panels at Abbott, combined with the proposed microreactor, could change a coal and natural gas plant into a diversified energy generation facility.
While some of the above projects might come to fruition, to complete our clean energy objectives, Solar Farm 3.0 would have to be online by 2030. Campus would also have to find new ways to supply clean electricity and thermal power in order to reach objectives 2.3.1 and 2.3.2 even with the addition of major renewable infrastructure projects like the Hydro-Systems Lab Geothermal Foundations,Campus Instructional Facility’s geothermal network, and Solar Farm 2.0.
In the next two decades, the University of Illinois will have to achieve all the iCAP Energy chapter specifies and more to reach net zero carbon by 2050. More solar arrays and wind energy purchases will help achieve these goals, but no educational institution has achieved a perfect score on the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education’s (AASHE) “Greenhouse Gas” category on its Sustainability Tracking And Rating System (STARS) rating without purchasing carbon offsets. Currently, out of a maximum score of 8, the University of Illinois stands at a 3.15.
As a world-class institution, the University of Illinois’ goal is to set an example to other institutions in the Big Ten and the country to, as Chancellor Robert J. Jones said in his iCAP 2020 preface, “make a better and more sustainable world for the students, staff, and faculty who follow us.”
For the iCAP, staying on schedule is paramount, as the failure to complete one or more goals by decade’s end puts added stress on our successors to pick up the slack in years to come. On the other hand, if we complete our objectives and stay on track, net zero by 2050 is a real possibility and would spell an enormous victory for the University of Illinois and the planet.
In the iCAP, and certainly in our ever-warming climate, that starts with energy.
Crops at the The SoyFACE (Soybean Free Air Concentration Enrichment) facility.
As the world focuses on not only solving the climate crisis but also sustaining the world’s food supply, researchers need tools to evaluate how atmospheric pollutants affect crops. Over the past decade, the agriculture community has turned to solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) measurements to detect stresses on plants.
Plants absorb light from the sun to power photosynthesis, and the unused energy is emitted as heat and a tiny glow invisible to human eyes, termed fluorescence. Ever since the first global SIF map was generated in 2011, SIF has been used by researchers to investigate photosynthesis dynamics. For instance, it has been used to determine how high levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) or elevated temperature affect a plant’s properties.
Now a team from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) has used SIF to measure the effects of elevated ozone (O3) on soybean plants. The team published its findings in the Journal of Experimental Botany.
“Researchers have found SIF to be a faster, safer, and noninvasive way to study photosynthesis,” noted Genghong Wu, the work’s first author and the former Ph.D. student in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, under the supervision of Associate Professor Kaiyu Guan, the senior author of the work. “That is why it has become so popular. The novelty of this study is that for the first time, SIF was used to measure elevated ozone stress on soybeans in the field.”
Ozone is a damaging air pollutant that is costly to farmers. The SoyFACE (Soybean Free Air Concentration Enrichment) facility provides a testbed for studying the effects of ozone pollution in the field. It is managed by USDA ARS Scientist Lisa Ainsworth. For the current study, she designed the elevated O3 experiment with four plots as a control, and other four plots with higher amounts of O3. The team used a portable spectroscopic system placed about half meter above the plant canopy to take its measurements on both control and elevated O3 plots.They found that increased O3 levels resulted in a decrease in SIF, by as much as 36 percent during the late growing season.
Other processes associated with photosynthesis, such as electron transport and leaf-gas exchange, were simultaneously measured along with SIF. “As we observed those levels decrease with higher ozone levels, it confirmed to us that a decrease in SIF is a sign of stress,” said Ainsworth, who is also an Adjunct Professor of Plant Biology.
Although SIF is directly related to photosynthesis — the process by which plants absorb light and turn it into chemical energy — it isn’t the only factor to influence SIF. But Wu notes that plant photosynthesis, combined with measures of the size of the plants, can give farmers a good estimate of yield.
One of the advantages of SIF is that it is scalable. Wu is currently studying in Germany with colleagues, who use aircraft flying 1 kilometer off the ground to evaluate SIF’s effects on an entire field. Alongside Guan, the Founding Director of the Agroecosystem Sustainability Center (ASC) and a fellow investigator on this study, Wu hopes to use the method to track photosynthesis in regions around the world from a satellite orbiting the Earth.
“We want to use SIF to estimate or to monitor the dynamics of photosynthesis on a regional or global scale,” Wu reiterated. “To do that, we need to also further understand the mechanistic relationship between SIF and photosynthesis.”
The experiments that these colleagues did at SoyFACE to link SIF to air pollution are helping build that mechanistic understanding.
Other authors on the recent paper included Duncan G. Martin (Plant Biology), Hyungsuk Kimm (NRES and Research Institute of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Seoul National University), and Xi Yang (Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Virginia).
