Illinois Team Tests the Costs, Benefits of Agrivoltaics across the Midwest
Category: Energy Transitions
New Site at the Energy Farm Will Accelerate Agrivoltaics Research
New Solar and Geothermal Installations Power Energy Farm
Among the University of Illinois’ most impressive living laboratories is the Energy Farm, a 320-acre farm plot on the South Farms supporting sustainability research. The farm is a testbed for a broad range of renewable energy sources; researchers across many disciplines are studying how to scale up and improve the effectiveness of these renewables, hoping to revolutionize sustainable energy production. Two recent research installations – an underground geothermal “battery” and an agrivoltaic solar array – are providing energy for the farm.
The Energy Farm was founded in 2007 as part of the Energy Biosciences Institute. Tim Mies, Director of Energy Farm Operations, explained that the original focus of the farm was analyzing second-generation biofuel crops and perennial grasses as a fuel source, which eventually expanded to renewable energy research as a whole. This bioenergy research has continued under the CABBI grant, funded by the Department of Energy.
By layering complementary energy technologies on top of each other, the farm generates much of its own energy. It features underground geothermal installations, bioenergy crops growing on the surface, and solar arrays sitting above the ground.
In late 2022, the Illinois Green Fund supported a geothermal research collaboration between the University of Illinois and the Oak Ridge National Lab, which led to the installation of an underground geothermal battery (UTB) at the Energy Farm. This novel geothermal system features a water reservoir buried 20 feet underground that is tied in a geothermal loop. The UTB has a large thermal capacity and uses the ground’s stable temperature to provide a heat source or heat sink that is hotter or colder than the ambient air. Using a heat pump, this geothermal system can heat or cool a building. The key innovation of the UTB is that it can store thermal energy for later use, allowing it to accommodate the fluctuating thermal demands of a building.
The exchange of energy within this system is controlled and automated, which makes the installation very efficient. Andrew Stumpf, geologist and principal investigator at the Prairie Research Institute, described what makes this system unique.
“With this advanced installation, we can store thermal energy during times of lower demand and recover it as demand increases again. Through this mechanism you optimize the system’s efficiency,” said Stumpf.
The geothermal system at the Energy Farm, which began operation in May 2024, had immediate effects. Mies said he felt cooling almost instantly.
The primary purpose of the UTB is to provide heating and cooling, but the researchers also use this installation to study whether this new type of geothermal system can become mainstream. Although the farm’s office space is regulated by the geothermal installation, the adjacent laboratory space is heated by a propane furnace and cooled by electric-powered . An auxiliary part of this research project is to compare the efficiency of both systems. The hope is that geothermal technology can contribute to long-term sustainability goals on the farm. While the upfront cost of installing a geothermal system is higher than other renewable energy systems, the reduction in energy use is significant, so the cost recovery is expected to be quick.
Meanwhile, the Energy Farm’s main greenhouse is heated by a biomass boiler, which uses dried miscanthus as the fuel source. Instead of burning propane, this boiler turns the prairie grasses grown and harvested at the farm for research into heating.
In addition to these green installations, the Energy Farm is also home to a new 15kW solar array. The energy it generates is used by the farm, and excess energy is sold to the grid.
This array, with panels recycled from a campus building, is part of the SCAPES Agrivoltaics project, supported by a grant from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. SCAPES (Sustainably Co-locating Agricultural and Photovoltaic Electricity Systems) examines the capability of agrivoltaics, a practice that integrates and co-locates typical agricultural practices with solar electricity generation. Carl Bernacchi, Professor of Crop Sciences and Plant Biology at the University of Illinois and a principal investigator on the SCAPES project, provided insight into the environmental and ecological impacts of agrivoltaics research.
Because of its inherent constraints, agrivoltaics is an ideal framework for understanding crop responses to the environment, Bernacchi said. For example, the panels affect how much light reaches the crops. They also compete for space and slightly alter the temperature and humidity in the surrounding environments, making this a unique integration of the agriculture and energy sectors.
The array at the Energy Farm is layered on top of a plot of high-value crops. “I call it ‘hortivoltaics’ because it’s focused on horticultural crops like tomatoes and kale,” Bernacchi said. “It adds a whole dynamic level of diversity to the type of systems that we can study.”
In addition to this existing solar installation, SCAPES is building an 88kW array at the Energy Farm for the 2025 field research . This new, larger array will help researchers study agrivoltaics at a more realistic scale, paving the way for the commercial adoption of this practice.
All of the projects and initiatives at the Energy Farm represent the modern-day cross-disciplinary nature of sustainability research. Engineers are working with economists, educators, and biologists to make the technology of tomorrow happen today.
The Energy Farm employs two full-time staff who support the research being undertaken by undergraduate and graduate students, as well as their collaborative researchers. Students have played a key role in the success of these projects.
Regarding the geothermal research at the Energy Farm, Stumpf said, “Having a DOE National Laboratory and students involved creates a learning environment capable of providing numerous opportunities for collaboration and learning. We want this to be a living laboratory for students and faculty to use and benefit from.”
To Mies, running the Energy Farm is a team effort. “Our job is to work with researchers to bring concepts to reality,” he said. “When they say, can we do this? What do we need to do this? What’s it going to take? That’s where we come in.”
Energy use and generation on the farm can be monitored in real time from the Energy Farm Solar Dashboard >>>
— Article by iSEE Communications Intern Anjali Yedavalli
‘My Agrivoltaic Farm’ Game: Learning, Fun, and Sustainability — All in One
Imagine a lesson on agriculture and sustainability packaged in vibrant colors, pixelated fields, and charming animations. Creators of the new educational agrivoltaics app, My Agrivoltaic Farm, available for download on iOS and Android, have accomplished just that.
The Sustainably Colocating Agricultural and Photovoltaic Electricity Systems (SCAPES) Project sports an interdisciplinary team of experts in agriculture and engineering who explore the use of cropland as a source of both solar energy and food production. The “agrivoltaics” project, led by iSEE Director Madhu Khanna, ACES DIstinguished Professor of Agricultural and Consumer Economics at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, aims to increase the amount of sustainable energy and crops produced in these fields.
To complement this real-world research, the SCAPES Education Team set out to create an app that teaches players of all ages about the interconnectedness of agriculture and sustainability.
When players step into the charming, pixelated landscape of My Agrivoltaic Farm, they are greeted with a field of opportunities. Starting in their small grid-like Arizona farm, players gradually expand their plot into a full-fledged agrivoltaic farm, complete with solar panels, tractors, sprinklers, other technologies, and a variety of crops. With a shop available for every necessary piece of equipment and crop they would need — and a list of quests that unlock valuable rewards — the world of My Agrivoltaic Farm will keep players coming back for more.
Games like FarmVille, Harvest Moon, and Stardew Valley are known for their relaxing gameplay and aesthetics, drawing a wide audience into gamified farming. For many players, these games are entertaining because they are strategy-focused, using realistic simulations of weather patterns and agriculture to encourage the player to explore — and to fail. SCAPES educational researchers and game developers at Balance Studios collaborated to uphold this pivotal theme in My Agrivoltaic Farm.
“We want people to experiment and learn about the range of impacts adding solar panels to farmland can have. And sometimes that means making sub-optimal decisions,” said H. Chad Lane, the SCAPES educational research lead and Associate Professor of Computer Science and Educational Psychology at the U of I. “Some kids go full tilt with just one crop because they think it’s fun. Some are like, ‘What if I stopped doing crops and only did solar panels?’ They realize that it works, but someone who’s doing both is progressing way faster in the game than you are, and they are learning which crops love the additional shade and how the solar panels benefit from the cooling effects of the crops underneath.”
An additional goal for the app’s creators is to reinvent the perception of farmers and agriculture for audiences.
“I don’t know what your mental image of a farmer is, but in reality, it’s not what we were taught as kids growing up,” said Scott Tuinstra, Associate Creative Director from Balance Studios who collaborated on developing the app. “Farmers are using drones, they’re using AI, they’re using robotics. They’re taking a lot of measurements to see how crops are responding to different things.”
The SCAPES Education Team prioritized a healthy balance between the science of the gameplay and its effectiveness in teaching audiences about agrivoltaics.
“I’ve seen scientists committed to precision and accuracy, so they make it as realistic as possible, but that doesn’t always make sense educationally,” Lane said. “For example, soil quality is a huge deal in agriculture. But we don’t model that in the game because we needed to put our limited resources into the most educationally important features, such as teaching the relationship between solar panels and crops.”
However, the developers pushed for certain details to be included, especially if they pertained to important themes in agrivoltaics.
“The weather patterns in the game, for example, are all geographically realistic,” Lane said. “They cover a wide range, and they affect the underlying simulation that drives the game. If it’s cloudy, the solar panels don’t do as well. If it rains, you don’t have to water your crops as often. You might water and then it rains, and then you’ve overwatered. So all of these things affect the results and make the game more engaging at the same time.”
Although the game does not simulate soil composition, it does simulate soil moisture. Players can watch the soil turn different hues as they water crops. Once their plot gets large enough, they can even purchase a sprinkler system to increase efficiency.
“I love watching the sprinkler work. You have to work hard to unlock that feature, and it is extremely satisfying to watch,” Lane said. “I smile every time I see it go off.”
A list of unique features makes My Agrivoltaic Farm stand out in a sea of educational games. For example, the art style of the app, akin to its simulation gameplay predecessors, such as FarmVille and Clash of Clans, is a favorite for the developers.
“I like the art style,” said Heidi Klessig, Vice President of Client Relations at Balance Studios. “I think that the look and feel of the crops are fun and engaging, and there’s enough detail to be interesting. I think that the visual look and feel of it resonates with the age that we’re trying to hit,”
The SCAPES team is conducting educational research on the app, testing kids’ knowledge of agrivoltaics concepts in conjunction with the time they spend playing the game.
“We’re conducting research with this game on how to design effective educational technologies,” Lane said. “We want to know about the experience that it creates for someone, what ideas it evokes for them, what questions they have. That’s exciting to me. There are not many high-quality educational games like this out there.”
My Agrivoltaic Farm is available for download on iOS and Android! You can learn more about the features of the app on the SCAPES website.
— Article by iSEE Communications Intern Anjali Yedavalli
iCAP Update: Sustainability Starts With Energy Generation, Conservation
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 >>>
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.
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.
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.
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.
Geothermal: A Bright Campus Future
Geothermal is often overlooked as a renewable energy source, but at the University of Illinois, multiple organizations and campus units are championing it as a solution to meet clean energy goals. Geothermal energy systems take advantage of the stable temperatures underground to heat and cool buildings. In the winter, fluid in underground pipes absorbs and carries heat stored underground to a building, while in the summer, pipes carry heat away from the building and into the ground, thus cooling the building.
In April 2021, the largest geothermal energy system on campus became operational to condition the new Campus Instructional Facility (CIF). The heating and cooling capacity of the shallow geothermal energy system is based on 40 vertical borehole heat exchangers that circulate fluid from 100 meters underground to CIF to maintain steady indoor temperatures throughout the year. U of I Facilities & Services expects the CIF geothermal system will reduce the building’s energy consumption by 65% compared to the energy use of a building with a traditional heating and cooling system. So far, the system has successfully met the majority of CIF’s heating and cooling demand, but operational testing is still underway to optimize the system.
John Zhao, a Ph.D. student in Agricultural and Biological Engineering, has focused his research on holistically evaluating the performance of the CIF’s energy system by modeling it with commercial software. Conventional techniques for determining energy efficiency in buildings with geothermal systems include measurements of electricity reduction, carbon emissions, and the coefficient of performance (COP). Zhao takes this process a step further by examining how geology and the flow of ground water impact the system’s performance. He contends, “we need to add more complexities into the system so that we can accurately predict and analyze the performance.”
Installing a geothermal energy system is no easy feat; just the process of drilling 100-meter-deep boreholes and installing heat exchange loops can take months. According to Zhao, one of the university’s greatest concerns regarding new geothermal infrastructure is land availability for drilling; “even though the land can become parking lots or athletic fields afterward, (the installation) still requires a lot of time, which could inconvenience campus operations.” Along with land availability, the existing underground infrastructure (pipes and utility lines) must be considered when planning to drill. Adding to this complexity is the fact that borehole heat exchangers cannot simply be located wherever it is easiest to drill. Engineers must determine the optimal flow rates of fluid in the geothermal loops to avoid wasting energy by designing an optimal spatial layout for the boreholes.
While many issues remain to consider, the installation of geothermal energy systems has become more economically feasible for the university. Andrew Stumpf, an Associate Quaternary Geologist with the Illinois State Geological Survey, postulates that the recent passage of the Inflation Reduction Act will “supercharge the campus” to increase geothermal energy use. “Previously, tax credits for geothermal energy were only available to entities that paid taxes,” which excluded universities, municipalities, and nonprofit organizations. Under the Inflation Reduction Act, the university is now eligible for the 30% base credit to install geothermal energy, which significantly reduces the up-front costs of implementing a new geothermal system. The university is eligible for additional 10% bonus credits if domestic materials are used for its construction and if prevailing wage requirements are met.
Said Zhao: “Right now I don’t see any F&S proposals for new geothermal energy projects on campus, but I believe the (Student Sustainability Committee; SSC) would love to see projects like that.” SSC has contributed funds to many renewable energy projects, including Solar Farm 1.0 and the CIF geothermal system. Zhao encourages students to submit proposals for future geothermal projects.
The Illinois Geothermal Coalition (IGC) is another resource for those looking to implement geothermal energy on campus and beyond. The new coalition is a collaboration between the University of Illinois, corporations, nonprofits, and geothermal professionals. Stumpf, an IGC principal founder, said “our mission is to promote the wider adoption of geothermal energy in Illinois and the U.S. Midwest, which includes campus … (and) to provide expertise and information so that people can consider geothermal energy systems as an option.” With the creation of the IGC, Facilities & Services has access to experts from across the nation for advice on geothermal projects on campus.
With the success of the CIF geothermal system and the development of the IGC, the future of geothermal energy looks bright. Still, it is an oft-overlooked form of renewable energy by the public. The main components of a geothermal system are located underground, while solar panels and wind turbines can be spotted on rooftops and in fields. According to Stumpf, geothermal energy systems are more efficient than solar or wind energy because their performance is not dependent on weather conditions. An added benefit is that materials used for geothermal systems are primarily sourced domestically, while components of solar and wind installations are imported.
The lifespan of geothermal systems is impressive as well: “I don’t know of any systems that have totally been retired because the boreholes are expected to last for over 50 years,” Stumpf said. “Typically, the first equipment that needs to be replaced is the geothermal heat pump that is located in the buildings.” High-density polyethylene (HDPE) pipes used for in the borehole heat exchangers are extremely durable and resistant to chemical degradation. Maintenance of a geothermal energy system is comparable to maintenance of a natural gas furnace for heating and an air conditioner for cooling, but geothermal heat pumps perform both heating and cooling functions.
The biggest challenge to adopting geothermal is the high upfront cost of installation, but both Zhao and Stumpf suggest there are ways to address the issue. “When installing single residential or building-by-building geothermal energy systems, the cost is great, but when these systems are upscaled to neighborhoods and multiple buildings, the economics behind are much better,” Stumpf said. He recalls a neighborhood in Austin, Texas, called “Whisper Valley” that does just that; each house has solar panels and is connected to a community geothermal energy system that provides the entirety of the heating and cooling. Along with the implementation of community energy systems, Zhao explains that expansion of existing geothermal systems by adding additional borehole heat exchangers is more practical and cost effective than creating new, separate systems. Ultimately, a “district-based” geothermal system is much easier to manage and maintain than many individual systems.
Don’t be surprised if you begin hearing more about geothermal projects on campus and in Illinois thanks to the work of the IGC and students like Zhao. The increased affordability of geothermal and accessibility of educational resources will boost awareness of this renewable energy source. This fall, the IGC plans to publish an interactive webpage to describe the potential of geothermal energy in Illinois and outline its environmental benefits and positive impacts on workforce training and economic development. Students interested in learning more about geothermal energy are encouraged to get in contact with the IGC.
— Article by Lucy Nifong, iSEE Communications Intern
Sabrina Summers: Food Waste to Fuel
Thanks to the work of Sabrina Summers and her University of Illinois research teammates, you might be able to power your car with your dinner leftovers someday.
Summers is a second-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering (ABE) and member of iSEE’s Environment-Enhancing Food-Energy-Water Systems (E-E FEWS) Project team. Led by ABE Professor Yuanhui Zhang, E-E FEWS specifically focuses on hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL), a type of thermochemical conversion that turns biomass into biocrude oil.
Before coming to the Midwest, Summers grew up in Honolulu, Hawaii, and earned two undergraduate degrees from the University of Hawaii at Manoa — one in Biological Engineering and the other in Chemistry. During her undergrad years, Summers did biomass conversion research at the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute. She was drawn more than 4,000 miles to Urbana-Champaign because of the research programs here; E-E FEWS is all about biomass — specifically in the form of food waste.
The HTL reactor puts biowaste solids through high-heat and high-pressure conditions, essentially mimicking the natural geologic conditions that create petroleum. Here’s the catch: Instead of taking millions of years, this oil is ready in hours or even minutes. The biocrude oil is then processed further and used as a fossil fuel substitute.
“We take food waste, we convert it into a bio-oil, and then we turn that into transportation fuel like diesel and jet fuel,” Summers said. “That circular paradigm of waste to energy can be applicable to a lot of parts of society.”
Summers’s work is specifically focused on the latter half of the process: refining the biocrude oil. Before this technology can be implemented on a larger scale, more efficient ways to manage the wastewater and remove contaminants need to be found. Once scientists master this step, E-E FEWS has great potential to put climate change-curbing technology in everybody’s hands.
In fact, E-E FEWS — originally seed-funded through iSEE’s Campus as a Living Laboratory program in 2018 and also supported by the Student Sustainability Committee (SSC) — recently claimed nearly $1M in two new grants from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC). These huge funds will propel E-E FEWS far.
“Getting large amounts of funding from the DOE and Army Corps can help us address more specific questions and bigger scopes of work,” Summers said. “But smaller groups like the SSC are also important: Being able to advance campus initiatives can help us identify with more of the local stakeholders, who may not necessarily relate with the larger funding sources.”
The SSC funding is more specifically aimed at converting campus dining hall food waste into renewable energy, leading to multifaceted benefits.
“We will reduce waste on campus and also produce energy to power campus. In doing this, we’ve created pilot-scale technology to be applied to the regional area. Then, these results can be applied on a national level,” Summers said. “The ultimate goal is for the pilot-scale technology to be placed in different areas so that we have more local energy producers within the bigger energy network.”
E-E FEWS operations take place at three campus locations. One lab, responsible for the refining processes, is in the ABE Building on the South Quad. The pilot reactor that performs the HTL process is at the South Farms. And another refining lab is on the South Farms, too.
Team members plan to host community engagement activities in the future because, of course, what good is green innovation if no one knows about it?
“We’re planning to present these results as extension activities to engage local community members here and teach them about the value of these energy systems and how it could benefit them,” Summers said.
E-E FEWS also collaborates with organizations beyond the University of Illinois campus, like Princeton University, Cal POLY, Pacific Northwest National Lab, and private Californian firm MicroBio Engineering, all striving toward waste-to-energy goals that will put green technology in the hands of everyday people.
After she completes her Ph.D., Summers will continue research work in the bioenergy field, likely at a national lab, pursuing the passion she’s always had.
“Growing up on an island, I learned early about our dependence on imported products, especially fuel,” she said. “I became really interested in sustainability and fossil fuels. I knew I wanted to study renewable energy.”
— Article by iSEE Communications Intern Maria Maring
USDA Funds ‘Agrivoltaics’ Project Led by iSEE, University of Illinois Researchers
Urbana, Ill. — The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced funding for a new project led by iSEE Interim Director Madhu Khanna to optimize design for “agrivoltaic” systems — fields with both crops and solar panels — that will maintain crop production, produce renewable energy, and increase farm profitability.
This $10 million, four-year project, funded through the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) Sustainable Agriculture Systems program with the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign as the lead institution, will study agrivoltaics in a variety of land types and climate scenarios (Illinois, Colorado, Arizona).
“For centuries, humans have used the benefits of the sun to produce food and energy — and only in recent decades has humanity turned to harvesting solar for renewable energy,” said Khanna, the ACES Distinguished Professor of Agricultural & Consumer Economics at Illinois. “But to produce solar energy at the utility scale is land intensive, and cropland is often the most suitable for this purpose.”
While solar has become more profitable for land use, concerns have arisen that it could cut into food production. And some counties have now prohibited large-scale photovoltaic arrays from replacing agricultural land.
“Agrivoltaics — co-locating energy and food production — has the potential to reduce this competition for land,” Khanna said. “Our proposed project for Sustainably Colocating Agricultural and Photovoltaic Electricity Systems (SCAPES) will provide a comprehensive analysis of the transformative potential of agrivoltaics. Our goal is to maintain or even increase crop yield, increase the combined (food and electricity) productivity of land, and diversify and increase farmers’ profits with row crops, forage, and specialty crops across a range of environments.”
Illinois agrivoltaics investigators include Khanna; Carl Bernacchi, USDA Agricultural Research Service Plant Physiologist; Bruce Branham, Professor of Crop Sciences; Evan H. DeLucia, Arends Professor Emeritus of Plant Biology; D.K. Lee, Professor of Crop Sciences; Kaiyu Guan, Associate Professor of Natural Resources & Environmental Sciences; H. Chad Lane, Associate Professor of Educational Psychology and Computer Science; Nenad Miljkovic, Associate Professor of Mechanical Science & Engineering; Samantha Lindgren, Assistant Professor of Education Policy, Organization, and Leadership; Nuria Gomez-Casanovas, Visiting Research Specialist at iSEE; and Bin Peng, Postdoctoral Research Associate at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications.
The Illinois team will partner with Dennis Bowman at the U of I Extension for agrivoltaics outreach activities. Additionally, the grant features a combination of research, education, and extension subawards for the University of Arizona, Colorado State University, Auburn University, the University of Illinois Chicago, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
View more, including the full project team, on the Agrivoltaics project website >>>
Also funded by USDA NIFA:
iSEE and the Illinois Regenerative Agriculture Initiative helped U of I researchers become part of a $10M project that seeks to make Midwestern agriculture more resilient by diversifying farms, marketing, and the agricultural landscape.
NIFA selected the Purdue University-led project titled “#DiverseCornBelt: Resilient Intensification through Diversity in Midwestern Agriculture,” which has a multidisciplinary team that spans the life, physical and social sciences.
Assistant Professor Andrew Margenot and Professor Emily Heaton, both in the Department of Crop Sciences, will use their $1.7M subaward to supervise students conducting biophysical measurements of cropping system function over a range of diverse crop practices. “We are excited to be working on this high-impact, regional project that is directly aligned with ISEE and IRAI,” Heaton said. “This project will let us identify ways to diversify the corn belt ecosystem that also increase rural prosperity.”
Other partner institutions on the project include the American Society of Agronomy, Conservation Technology Information Center, USDA Economic Research Service, USDA Forest Service, Illinois State University, Iowa State University, Montana State University, The Nature Conservancy, Practical Farmers of Iowa, University of Iowa, University of Minnesota, University of Wisconsin Madison, and UW Platteville.
“The Midwest has unmatched biophysical potential when it comes to agriculture: inherently fertile soils, ample rainfall and growing season,” Margenot said. “These natural resources can be used in multiple ways to meet rural communities’ and larger U.S. society’s needs: What are the trade-offs among these, from agronomic to environmental to socioeconomic outcomes? What are barriers and opportunities? In this work, a team of researchers across multiple Midwestern states will tackle these interdisciplinary questions. At the University of Illinois, we’re proud to spearhead the biophysical evaluation of agroecosystem sustainability.”
View the USDA description of the project >>>
Update from Oct. 20, 2021: iSEE brings in total of $34.7M
- $15M NSF Grant Creates I-GUIDE Geospatial Center. iSEE has helped facilitate funding to enable geospatial data-driven scientific discovery at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and the resulting research will lead to better understanding of the risks and impacts of climate change and disasters. The $15 million Institute for Geospatial Understanding through an Integrative Discovery Environment (I-GUIDE) will receive the funding over five years as part of the National Science Foundation’s Harnessing the Data Revolution, which establishes five institutes across the United States to explore questions at the frontiers of science and engineering. Shaowen Wang, Professor and Head of Geography and Geographic Information Science and Founding Director of the CyberGIS Center for Advanced Digital and Spatial Studies, will lead the institute. Collaborating scientists and institutions will work with the CyberGIS Center in partnership with iSEE and the U of I’s Discovery Partners Institute.
- $2.1M in additional five-year funding from the Leverhulme Centre for Climate Change Mitigation for U of I researchers, led by Evan DeLucia (Emeritus Professor of Plant Biology), Carl Bernacchi (U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service), and new co-PI Lisa Ainsworth (USDA ARS) to extend the campus’s enhanced weathering experiments using basalt rock on farm fields.
- $2M+ from NSF’s Smart & Connected Communities program for a team led by Crop Sciences Assistant Professor Andrew Margenot to build a “Nutrient Management Community (NuMC)” to help farmers adopt effective and trusted tools that will help address critical water quality issues.
- A $1M, two-year grant from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) to bolster an iSEE 2020 seed-funded project to turn ash into energy. The Rapid AI-based Dissection of Ashes using Raman and XRF Spectroscopy (RADAR-X) Project, led by Civil & Environmental Engineering (CEE) Assistant Professor Nishant Garg, will develop rapid, real-time analysis of the ashes — then explore numerous composition-dependent end uses.
- One of iSEE’s original 2018 Campus as a Living Laboratory projects received nearly $1M from DOE and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Led by Agricultural & Biological Engineering Professor Yuanhui Zhang, the Environment-Enhancing Food, Energy, and Water Systems project is testing a livestock waste processing system that can deliver renewable energy as well as clean water and some bonus organic ag fertilizers.
- Another 2020 iSEE seed-funded project led by Blue Waters and Natural Resources & Environmental Sciences (NRES) Associate Professor Kaiyu Guan to monitor crop nitrogen status was granted $1M from the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR).
- A $518,000 subaward for NRES Professor Jeffrey Brawn and CEE Associate Professor Jeremy Guest from the U.S. Geological Survey for the University of Minnesota-led Midwest Climate Adaptation Science Center (CASC) consortium. The eight partner institutions will advance scientific research and education in response to climate change impacts in the Midwest.
- A $500,000 subaward for Guan from DOE for a project led by Alder Energy to convert biomass into aviation fuel.
— iSEE Communications & Public Affairs Director Tony Mancuso