Environmental Research
Research Focus Areas
Planning PIER Environmental Research
Energy-Related Environmental Research (or PIER-EA) is responsible for addressing the environmental impacts and beneficial uses of electricity in California. The PIER strategic plan, defines the mission of PIER-EA:
"develop cost-effective approaches to evaluating and resolving environmental effects of energy production, delivery and use in California; and explore how new electricity applications and products can solve environmental problems."
PIER-EA's goal is to resolve impacts from electricity generation, transmission, and use. In addition to addressing suspected and documented environmental impacts of electricity, PIER-EA provides basic scientific information and tools needed to understand the environmental implications of energy technology and fuel types to inform the R&D choices undertaken elsewhere in the PIER Program.
Core research is being conducted in air quality, aquatic resources, terrestrial resources, and global climate change. Research in these areas is planned using research roadmaps. Generally, PIER-EA Research Roadmaps:
- Engage stakeholders, including federal, state and local governments, industry, and other non-governmental organizations.
- Identify gaps in ongoing research relative to selected issues.
- Facilitate collaborations with other research institutions, state agencies, and utilities.
- Define short-, mid-, and long-term goals, timeframes, budgets, and activities.
- Balance timeframes and risk to provide the greatest public benefit.
PIER-EA Research Investment
Using research roadmaps as a guide, PIER-EA employs these investment approaches to identify and select the research projects that best reflect the state's energy priorities:
- Competitive Solicitations and Small Grants - ensure that promising new technologies and methods are developed and demonstrated.
- Targets of Opportunity - work with individual companies on specific applications and respond to unexpected opportunities, such as federal economic stimulus packages.
- Engage the Research Community - focus California's world-class scientists and engineers at its universities, national laboratories, and industries on the state's energy and environmental priorities.
PIER-EA Research Roadmaps
PIER Environmental Area Research Plan: Environmental Context and Key Environmental Issues
Air Quality
- Impacts of Distributed Generation On Air Quality: A Roadmap
- Energy-Related Indoor Environmental Quality Research: A Priority Agenda
Aquatic Resources
Terrestrial Resources
- A Roadmap for PIER Research on Methods to Assess and Mitigate Impacts of Wind Energy Development on Birds and Bats in California
- A Roadmap for PIER Research on Avian Collisions with Wind Turbines in California
- A Roadmap for PIER Research on Avian Collisions with Power Lines in California
- A Roadmap for PIER Research on Avian Power Line Electrocution in California
- Sustainable Urban Energy Planning: A Roadmap for Research and Funding
- A Roadmap for PIER Research On Biological Issues of Siting and Managing Transmission Line Rights-Of-Way
Global Climate Change
- PIER-EA Climate Change Research, Development and Demonstration Plan Consultant Report
- Modeling Regional Climate Change in California
- The Effects of Global Climate Change on California Water Resources
- Ecological Impacts of a Changing Climate
- Carbon Sequestration in California's Terrestrial Ecosystems and Geological Formations
- Developing Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Supply Curves for In-State Sources
- The Economics of Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation in California
- Research Roadmap For Greenhouse Gas Inventory Methods
- Climate Change and Health In California A PIER Research Roadmap
- Roadmap on Innovative Technologies and Concepts for Beneficial CO2 Use (available in 2011)