Power System Transitions for Decarbonization

To avoid catastrophic climate change, we must accelerate our efforts to decarbonize the energy system. In the U.S., power generation accounts for roughly a third of greenhouse gas emissions. This talk will present results of research to evaluate the effect of several different trends in the power system including the retirement of coal and nuclear power plants, increased penetration of wind power, and deployment of utility-scale storage to provide energy and ancillary services to the grid.

Dr. Paulina Jaramillo has a bachelor's in civil and environmental engineering from Florida International University (2003), as well as a master's and Ph.D. in civil and environmental engineering with an emphasis in green design from Carnegie Mellon University (2004 and 2007, respectively). Her past research has focused on life cycle assessment of energy systems with an emphasis on climate change impacts. Between 2010 and 2014, she was the executive director of the RenewElec project at Carnegie Mellon University, which looked at challenges and opportunities for the large-scale integration of variable and intermittent renewable resources into the U.S. power system. She is currently involved in multi-disciplinary research projects to better understand the issues related to climate impacts, mitigation, and adaptation in the global energy system. In a world in which climate change is no longer avoidable, we will need to better understand the continued impacts of the energy system on the changing climate, continue mitigating these impacts, and adapt our energy infrastructure to the challenges that now seem inevitable.