Gosnell CV - One PageCollaborators:
Greer Gosnell (Mines – Lead) Paty Romero-Lankao (NREL – Lead) Paulo
Cesar Tabares-Velasco (Mines) Benjamin Gilbert (Mines) Janet Reyna
(NREL)
Targeted External Funding Opportunities:
DOE Lab Call (expected at the end of June), DOE BTO BENEFIT FOA,
and CPUC/CEC funding with projects having a budget of around $1
million over 3 years.
Our proposal may also be adapted for NSF Smart and Connected
Communities Integrated Research Grant (SCC-IRG, $1.5-$2.5 million)
for submission in Q1 2022.
PROJECT NARRATIVE: As society directs vastly more resources toward
“smart” and energy efficient (SEE) grid, building, and distributed
energy technologies to mitigate climate change, it is crucial to
design technologies, policies, and programs to contribute toward
distributional justice. Utilities and governments channel
significant funds (~$11B from 2013-2017) toward residential energy
efficiency (1). Given the Biden Administration’s objective to
ensure such spending benefits disadvantaged communities under its
Justice40 Initiative, it is crucial to ask to what extent will
low-income and disadvantaged households benefit from these public
investments and accompanying technology transitions? Evidence
suggests higher-income households achieve more savings from
time-of-use tariffs and receive more EV, solar PV, and demand-side
management incentives (2–5), Black households spend far more on
energy than do white households for all but the highest income
decile (6).
For decades, researchers have sought to quantify and explain the
energy efficiency gap (EEG), which arises from under-investment in
energy efficiency even absent environmental externalities, implying
a role for policy (7, 8). However, many studies suffer from
validity concerns and unobserved factors that may affect
investments (9). Research to quantify how the EEG varies by income,
race, and gender—or to causally identify solutions to
inequities—has been scant, though recent UK evidence suggests
government programs disproportionately benefit wealthier households
(10). Investment inefficiencies may be acutely strong for
households in underserved neighborhoods due to historically unfair
policies (11) and disproportionately burdensome search and hassle
costs (12, 13). Yet, sparse evidence exists to understand whether
there is equitable distribution of access to, or benefits and costs
associated with, such programs nor the novel SEE technologies used
to maximize participation benefits. Barriers to adoption of SEE
technologies are poorly understood, and upfront costs or lack of
access to financing may particularly deter low-income households.
One key barrier to energy-related investments is households’
immense uncertainty about short- and long-run energy savings, which
is not typically reduced by providing technical information on
program benefits, or even in-home energy audits, as specific
savings depend on households’ unique interactions with their home’s
systems and appliances. Critically, a vast majority of residential
energy investments occur between moves when homes are bought and
sold or landlords can easily access an empty home (1). No rigorous
evidence exists to quantify consumer mis-optimization at this
critical stage. While making installations prior to move-in can
boost satisfaction and lower transaction costs (14, 15), this is
the time when decision makers are least certain about potential
savings.
Our interdisciplinary approach will allow us to (i) measure the EEG
in marginalized communities, (ii) resolve critical uncertainty to
improve investment decisions, and (iii) rigorously explore the
potential of SEE technologies to improve energy security and
provide grid services to these communities.
OVERALL PROPOSAL OBJECTIVES AND TASKS:
1. Survey of primary energy decision makers: We will design and
implement an incentivized survey of primary energy decision makers
in a representative sample of households with our partner Southern
California Edison (SCE), which serves some of the state’s most
environmentally “disadvantaged” communities, a majority of which
are Hispanic/Latino (Figs. 1 and 2). The survey will solicit
information to train our algorithm and additionally collect data on
(i) energy literacy, (ii) own/network’s awareness, exposure, and
ownership of various SEE technologies, (iii) perceived benefits,
costs, and risks associated with SEE programs and upgrades, and
(iv) sociodemographic information to assess differential
perceptions of these technologies across education, income, race,
gender, and prior program access.
2. AI algorithm for SEE investment recommendations: We will
subsequently use the utility and survey data to train and test
recurrent neural network and random forest models in order to
classify technology preferences and predict energy consumption
patterns. The algorithm will then make customized SEE investment
recommendations based on preferences and expected financial
gains.
3. Large-scale field experiment with custom recommendations: We
will design, pilot, and implement a field experiment in
collaboration with SCE and a partner real estate agency in which we
will sample primarily low-income households during a move to
understand impacts of tailored information provision. We
hypothesize that interventions can substantially improve SEE
investments and energy savings during
a move for three main reasons: households (i) may upgrade prior to
move-in, vastly reducing hassle costs; (ii) have not yet developed
routines and habits around the appliances in their new home,
mitigating status quo bias and invoking the ‘fresh start effect’;
and (iii) are uniquely focused on the home’s features and inventory
during the home or apartment “shopping” process, overcoming
problems of limited attention.
VISION, IMPACT, AND UNIQUE POSITIONING FOR NEXUS PROPOSAL: The
innovative tools we develop in our research will influence energy
investment decisions well beyond our study. In developing the
experiment, we will create an online dashboard usable by any
utility, real estate agency, or home buyer, owner, or renter. The
research complements efforts by NREL and LADWP to achieve 100%
renewable energy by 2045 in Los Angeles, though our findings will
inform transitions across the nation. The research also complements
ongoing Mines/NREL research to better incorporate real-world
behavior and decision- making into energy systems modeling, and
will capitalize upon insights from NREL’s Home Energy Score
research. Each team member offers unique skills and experience that
are highly complementary in realizing the outlined objectives.
Gilbert developed the economic theory underlying the proposed
research and is the team’s foremost machine learning expert.
Tabares’ expertise in buildings engineering will be instrumental in
developing the algorithmic recommendations and measuring objective
well-being indicators. Gosnell (lead proposal writer) is a
behavioral scientist who brings extensive experience in field
experimental design and management, and has forged research
partnerships with a wide range of diverse stakeholders. As LA100’s
co-lead of the Equity Study, Romero-Lankao’s background in
sociological mixed-methods research will ensure communities’ needs,
culture, and constraints are central to every phase of the
research.
SEED FUNDING OBJECTIVES AND TASKS:
Objectives: Solicit committed partnerships necessary for successful
funding bid, research implementation, and dissemination. Expand the
above described narrative, including data collection and
preliminary analysis to justify our approach. Complete draft
proposal for Nexus review by September 2021. Tasks: 1) Schedule
weekly team meetings and assign tasks (Jun); 2) solidify
partnerships with real estate agency (Zillow has expressed
interest), 1-2 local community stakeholders (e.g., a member of the
California Environmental Justice Alliance), and a major policy
outreach group (ACEEE has expressed interest) to support the
proposal (Jun-Jul); 3) preliminary analysis of utility and real
estate sample data to support and visualize research motivation
(Jul-Aug); 4) update literature review to include impact of
efficient, smart, electric energy-using durables on home value
(Jun-Aug); and 5) write full 15-page proposal (Jun-Sep).
REFERENCES: 1. B. Gilbert, J. Lariviere, K. Novan, (2020). 2. A.
Faruqui, S. George, Electricity Journal. 18, 53–63 (2005). 3. S.
Borenstein, Journal of the Association of Environmental and
Resource Economists. 4, S85–S122 (2017). 4. S. Borenstein, L. W.
Davis, The Distributional Effects of US Clean Energy Tax Credits
(2016). 5. A. Satchwell et al., “A National Roadmap for
Grid-Interactive Efficient Buildings” (2021). 6. E. Lyubich, “The
Race Gap in Residential Energy Expenditures” (2020), (available at
https://haas.berkeley.edu/energy-institute/about/funders/.). 7. A.
B. Jaffe, R. N. Stavins, Energy policy. 22, 804–810 (1994). 8. K.
Gillingham, K. Palmer, Review of Environmental Economics and
Policy. 8, 18–38 (2014). 9. H. Allcott, M. Greenstone, Journal of
Economic Perspectives. 26, 3–28 (2012). 10. D. McCoy, R. Kotsch,
Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment
Working Paper No. 306. 5709 (2018) (available at www.cccep.ac.uk).
11. D. Aaronson, J. Faber, D. Hartley, B. Mazumder, P. Sharkey,
Regional Science and Urban Economics. 86, 103622 (2021). 12. M.
Ross, N. Bateman, 1–68 (2019). 13. A. Mani, S. Mullainathan, E.
Shafir, J. Zhao, Science. 341, 976–980 (2013). 14. T. Mukai, S.
Kawamoto, Y. Ueda, M. Saijo, N. Abe, Energy Policy. 39, 5440–5448
(2011). 15. L. Strupeit, A. Palm, Journal of Cleaner Production.
123, 124–136 (2016).
Supporting Materials
Figure 2 Source: CalEnviroScreen
EDUCATION 2012-2016 Ph.D. Environmental Economics, London School of
Economics (LSE) 2011-2012 MSc Environmental Economics and Climate
Change with distinction, LSE 2007-2011 BS, Economics, BA, Political
Science, Loyola Marymount University, summa cum laude
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE 2020- Research Assistant Professor, Payne
Institute for Public Policy, Colorado School of Mines 2016-2020 AXA
Future Research Leader on Energy Transition and Research Fellow,
Grantham
Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment; Visiting
Scholar at UCSD 2016 Research Manager, Marshall Institute for
Philanthropy and Social Enterprise, LSE
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS AND WORKING PAPERS Consumer-Driven Virtual
Power Plants: A Field Experiment. WP Market Failures and
Willingness-to-Accept the Smart Energy Transition: Experimental
Evidence. WP Gosnell, G. K. and M. D. Bazilian. “Changing Behaviour
is the Key to Solving the Climate Challenge.”
Nature Human Behaviour (2021) Gosnell, G. K., J. A. List, and R. D.
Metcalfe. “The Impact of Managerial Practices on Employee
Productivity: A Field Experiment with Airline Captains.” The
Journal of Political Economy (2020) (Harvard Business Review)
Carattini, S., G. Gosnell, and A. Tavoni. “How Developed Countries
can learn from Developing Countries to Tackle Climate Change.”
World Development (2019)
Gosnell, G.. “A risk-seeking future.” Nature Climate Change: News
and Views (2018) Gosnell, G. “Communicating Resourcefully: A
Natural Field Experiment on Environmental Framing
and Cognitive Dissonance in Going Paperless.” Ecological Economics
(2017) Gosnell, G. and A. Tavoni. “A Bargaining Experiment on
Heterogeneity and Side Deals in Climate
Negotiations.” Climatic Change
SELECTED CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS, INVITED LECTURES, AND WORKSHOPS
- UK Department for Business, Enterprise, and Industrial Strategy
Research Presentation, September 2020 - Ofgem-GRI Workshop on using
research in policy-making, London, UK, July 2018 - WCERE 6th World
Congress of Environmental & Resource Economists, Gothenburg,
Sweden, June 2018 - University of Groningen Markets and
Sustainability Seminar Series, Groningen, Netherlands, May 2018 -
International Meeting on Experimental and Behavioural Social
Sciences, Florence, Italy, May 2018 - BITSS Research Transparency
and Reproducibility Training (RT2), London, England, September 2017
- EAERE 23rd Annual Conference, Athens, Greece, June 2017 -
International Meeting on Experimental and Behavioural Social
Sciences, Barcelona, Spain, April 2017 - Knowledge and Innovation
Network, Behavioral Econ in Business, Warwick Business School,
March 2017 - National Bureau of Economic Research Summer Institute,
Cambridge MA, August 2015 - London Experimental Workshop, Royal
Holloway University, Egham, UK, June 2015
SELECTED GRANTS AND FELLOWSHIPS - J-PAL King Climate Action
Initiative (K-CAI) Pilot Project Funding (2021) - GEMCLIME Research
Secondment to the University of California San Diego (2019-2020) -
AXA Future Research Leader Fellowship (2018-2020) - UKRI Innovation
Fellowship (2018) - Marshall Institute Research Grant Recipient
(2017)
Throughout her career, she has developed a considerable body of
highly regarded interdisciplinary research, resulting in several
research grants, and 135 peer-reviewed publications. Paty has
extensive experience as a sociologist working across disciplines,
and at the science-policy interface, in the US, Mexico, and many
other urban locations internationally. Her leadership of
international research has garnered a good deal of recognition. She
was co-leading author to Working Group II of the Nobel
prize-winning IPCC Fourth Assessment Report (AR4). She is editor of
Earth’s Future and editorial board member of several
journals.
Paulo Cesar Tabares-Velasco, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Colorado School of
Mines, Golden CO 80401 https://inside.mines.edu/~tabares/
Education The Pennsylvania State University (PSU), University Park,
PA, Architectural Engineering Ph.D. 2009 Colorado State University
(CSU), Fort Collins, CO, Mechanical Engineering, M.S. 2005
Monterrey Institute of Technology (ITESM), Mexico, Engineering
Physics B.S. 2002
Work Experience & Recent Projects 2019-Present. Joint
Appointment, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
2014-Present. Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering, Colorado
School of Mines Lead Engineer, Advanced Multi-scale Building Energy
(AMBER) Group 2010-2014. Postdoctoral Researcher / Research
Engineer, NREL 2003-2005. Graduate Student Project Engineer,
Industrial Assessment Center, CSU
• PI: “Characterizing and Quantifying Environmental and Economic
benefits of Cross Laminated Timber Buildings across the U.S.”, U.S.
Forest Services, 2019-2022
• PI: “Modeling and Opt. of HVAC Thermal Storage in Commercial
Buildings”, NREL, 2019-2022 • PI: “Modeling of Behind the Meter
Energy Storage”, NREL, 2019-2021 • PI “Renewable Energy Feasibility
Study at Fort Berthold Indian Reservation,” U.S.
Department of Interior, Division of Energy and Mineral Development,
2017-2019
• Co-PI: “Robust Asset-and-User-Aware Power Grid Dispatch in
Extreme Temp.” NSF, 2016–2019
Proposal-Related Publications 1. Fathollahzadeh, MH. and P.C.
Tabares-Velasco. "Electric demand minimization of existing
district
chiller plants with rigid or flexible thermal demand." Applied
Energy 289 (2021): 116664. 2. Fathollahzadeh, M.H., A. Speake, P.C.
Tabares-Velasco, Z. Khademian, and Lone-Fight, L.,
"Renewable Energy Analysis in Indigenous Communities using
Bottom-up Demand Prediction," Sustainable Cities and Society,
102932
3. Heine K., P.C. Tabares-Velasco, and A. Thatte. "A Simulation
Approach to Sizing Batteries for Integration with Net-Zero Energy
Residential Buildings Renewable Energy," Renew. Ener. 139, 2019:
176-185
4. Wijesuriya S., and P.C. Tabares-Velasco. " Experimental
apparatus and methodology to test and quantify thermal performance
of micro and macro-encapsulated phase change materials in building
envelope applications," Energy Storage, 32 December 2020,
101770
5. Tabares-Velasco, P.C, Speake, A., Harris, M., Newman, A.,
Vincent T. and Lanahan M. 2019. "A modeling framework for
optimization-based control of a residential building thermostat for
time-of- use pricing," Applied Energy 242: 1346-1357
6. Lanahan M., Engert S., Tabares-Velasco, P.C., and Kim T.
"Graphical Visualization of Potential Cost Savings from Energy
Storage under Time-of-Use Electric Rates," Journal of Building
Performance Simulation, DOI: 10.1080/19401493.2018.1470203
7. Cetin, K., Tabares-Velasco, P.C. and Novoselac, A. "Appliance
daily energy use in new residential buildings: Use profiles and
variation in time-of-use," Ener. Buil, 84. 2014: 716–726
Honors & Awards • Distinguished Service Award, ASHRAE 2021 •
1st place, 2019 Solar Decathlon Africa, "InterHouse" Team, (HVAC
advisor) 2019
U.S. Dept. of Energy and Moroccan Ministry of Energy, Mines • 2009
‘Crosby Field’ Best Paper Award, ASHRAE 2010 • 2009 Best Poster
Presentation Award, ASHRAE 2010 • 2009 ‘Willis H. Carrier’ Award,
ASHRAE 2010 • 4th place, 2007 Solar Decathlon Contest, PennState
"MorningStart
Home" Team, U.S. Dept. of Energy 2007
Ben Gilbert Assistant Professor, Colorado School of Mines
Division of Economics & Business 1500 Illinois St Golden, CO
80401
Phone: 303-384-2359
[email protected]
(IGERT), Fellowship in Marine Biodiversity and Conservation
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS: - Gilbert, B., & Graff Zivin, J. (2020).
Dynamic corrective taxes with time-varying salience. Journal
of
Environmental Economics and Management. 103: 102356 - Thunstrom,
L., Gilbert, B., & Jones Ritten, C. (2018). Nudges that hurt
those already hurting –
distributional and unintended effects of salience nudges. Journal
of Economic Behavior & Organization 153: 267-282.
- Beracha, E., Gilbert, B., Kjorstad, T., & Womack, K. (2016).
On the relation of local amenities and house price dynamics. Real
Estate Economics, doi:10.1111/1540-6229.12170.
- Gilbert, B. & Graff Zivin, J. (2014) Dynamic salience with
intermittent billing: evidence from smart electricity meters.
Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 107 (A):
176-190.
- Fissel, B., Gilbert, B., & LaRiviere, J. (2013). Technology
adoption and diffusion with uncertainty in a commons. Economics
Letters 120 (2): 297-301.
- Gardzelewski, J., Denzer, A., & Gilbert, B. (2017).
Architecturally Integrated Photovoltaic Panels: Residential Design
Methods and Consumer Preferences. In Proceedings of the
Architectural Engineering Institute 2017 (pp. 940-951), American
Society of Civil Engineers.
SELECTED CONTRACTS AND GRANTS: - Sloan Foundation. Colorado
Technology Primer for Economists and Social Scientists. $277,334. -
University of Wyoming Competitive Energy GA grant. Incentives and
Additionality in Energy
Efficiency Subsidies, funded. - University of Wyoming Center for
Energy Economics and Public Policy. Aesthetic, Financial, and
Behavioral Barriers to Net-Zero Energy and Solar Home Demand.
Funded at $95,000. SELECTED CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS: - June 2020,
WEAI Annual Conference: “Energy efficiency, green technology, and
the pain of paying” - June 2016, AERE Summer Conference: “Social
Image, Signaling, and Sorting: Evidence from a
Discrete Choice Experiment with Solar Homes” - July 2015,
InterSolar North America (industry conference), invited panelist:
“Social Image in the
Solar Home Market”
Education and Training Ph.D. Civil, Environmental, and Sustainable
Engineering, May 2016
M.S.E. Civil, Environmental, and Sustainable Engineering, May
2013
B.S. Mechanical Engineering, with Distinction, December 2011
Professional Experience 2018–present Research Engineer, National
Renewable Energy Lab (NREL), Residential Buildings
Research Group, Golden, CO
• Researcher on national end use load profile project for DOE
• Development team for Scout national energy forecasting tool
• Coordinator of DOE, LBNL, and NREL contributions to the
International Energy Agency’s Annex 70 on Building Energy
Epidemiology
• Leading development of building energy modeling technical report
for grid-interactive efficient buildings
for Building Technologies Office
2016–2018 ORISE Science & Technology Policy Fellow, U.S.
Department of Energy, Building Technologies Office (BTO),
Washington, D.C.
• Coordinator of DOE, LBNL, and NREL contributions to the
International Energy Agency’s Annex 70 on Building Energy
Epidemiology
• Contributor to BTO’s building energy modeling technology
roadmap
• Contributor to BTO’s grid-interactive efficient buildings
literature review and strategy development
• Assisted in testing and development for the Scout national energy
forecasting tool
• Coordinated BTO’s problem statement development for the
interdisciplinary Hacking for Energy
university course
• Developed a survey on time-sensitive valuation of energy
efficiency for modeling
• Developed and reviewed BTO funding calls
2012– 2016 Graduate Research Assistant/NSF Graduate Research
Fellowship, Arizona State University
• Dissertation: Developing New Methods for Analyzing Urban Energy
Use in Buildings: Historic Turnover, Spatial Patterns, and Future
Forecasting
• Contributing proposal author to over $1.3M in grants
received
Selected Journal Publications 1. Langevin, J., Harris, C., and
Reyna, J. (2019). Assessing the potential to reduce U.S. building
CO2
emissions 80% by 2050. Joule. In Press.
2. Reyna, J. and Chester, M. Energy Efficiency to Reduce
Electricity & Natural Gas Use Under Climate
Change. (2017). Nature Communications. 8: 14916. doi:
10.1038/ncomms14916
3. Reyna, J. and Chester, M. (2015). The Growth of Urban Building
Infrastructure, its Unintended Lock-in, and Embedded Environmental
Effects. Journal of Industrial Ecology. 19(4): 524-537. doi:
10.1111/jiec.12211
4. Reyna, J., Chester, M., Ahn, S., and Fraser, A. (2014).
Improving the Accuracy of Vehicle Emissions Profiles for Urban
Transportation Greenhouse Gas and Air Pollution Inventories.
Environmental Science & Technology. 49(1): 369-376. doi:
10.1021/es5023575
In Preparation 1. Langevin, J., Reyna, J. Ebrahimigharehbaghi, S.,
Fennell, P., Nageli, C., Sandberg, N., Webster, J.,
Laverge, J., Delghust, M., Van Hove, M., Jakob, M., and Mata, E.
Development of a common approach for
classifying building stock and energy models.