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2017 Spring | Business & Sustainability, Education & Outreach, Policy & Regulation, Sustainability

Barriers to Renewable Energy Implementation

Student(s):

Josephine Strauss

Program or Department(s):

  • Program on the Environment
  • University of Washington

Site supervisor(s):

Rachel Brombaugh and Diana Cherberg

Partner(s):

  • King County

Faculty advisor(s):

Scott Montgomery Lecturer, Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington

For my capstone project, my aim was to focus on energy. Grid integration is something that highly interests me and carries great relevance in today’s society. My project consisted of two parts, both aimed at understanding barriers to renewable energy implementation. For my internship, I had the opportunity to work with King County officials to develop a white page brief on Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE). The purpose of this brief was to help officials in the King County Executive’s Office make decisions on whether to pursue PACE enabling legislation. The second part of the project consisted of research that aimed at broadly identifying key barriers that prevent widespread implementation of renewable energy resources and synthesize possible solutions and explanations for these barriers. To accomplish these two parts, I used investigative research, conducting literature reviews of applicable material and interviews with individuals in the field.