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The Energy Transition Institute (ETI) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst has been awarded nearly $1.2 million to support two key initiatives in designing a just, sustainable energy system. The funds, provided by the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (DOER) and the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC), will support both efforts in Holyoke to design a sustainable energy system that meets the needs of those with low to moderate incomes, as well as graduate student research through the university’s Elevating Equity Values in the Transition of the Energy (ELEVATE) program.

“These programs will directly benefit Massachusetts people, economy and environment.” says Jared Starr, executive director of ETI. “They will help Massachusetts meet our climate and clean energy commitments while ensuring affordability and social equity in the energy transition. We are really grateful for the state’s investment in this work.” 

“We’re glad to support the Energy Transition Institute’s important work to make clean energy more affordable and available,” said Elizabeth Mahony, commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Resources. “Everyone should have access to modern heating and cooling systems, clean and healthy air, and energy-efficient homes that keep costs down. We look forward to seeing UMass students bring these solutions to the Pioneer Valley and across Massachusetts.”

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“Massachusetts’ clean energy transition depends on approaches that are affordable, equitable, and grounded in real-world needs,” said MassCEC Interim CEO Dr. Jennifer Le Blond. “This partnership with UMass Amherst's Energy Transition Institute reflects a shared commitment to ensuring that residents in cities like Holyoke help shape, and benefit from, the way we power our communities. Investing in this work makes Massachusetts stronger and supports the next generation of leaders whose research and engagement will move these solutions forward.”

The Holyoke Community Energy Project aims to design an energy system to meet the needs of people in Holyoke and other similarly low- to moderate-income cities. Importantly, the people using the system are seen as key collaborators in creating this sustainable system.

“This move from fossil fuels to renewable sources—how we heat our homes, how we cook—runs through every building that we have,” says Nick Caverly, assistant professor of anthropology at UMass Amherst and co-PI of the Holyoke Community Energy Project. “We’ve got a lot of great technologies for making this transition happen, but the ways that we implement technology work really well for people who own their homes and have some disposable income, and it doesn’t work for low-income folks. And so, by taking this community-engaged approach, where we sit with folks who live in places like Holyoke, we can find ways of building technology that is fit for people, rather than trying to make people fit technology.”

Caverly says that people in their Energy Justice Leaders series of focus groups have been excited to take action on climate change, but also are clear in their understanding of unjust barriers. The funding will support the next cohort of Energy Justice Leaders to continue to untangle the current state of energy justice in Holyoke. 

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“People think about unfair systems as this abstract thing, but these are things that people can see,” he says. “They say, ‘I would really be excited if my building got rid of its gas boiler, but I’m also afraid that if we do, my rent is going to increase in a way that’s going to mean I’m going to have to leave this building.’”

The insights from this research will also inform the planning of community energy projects, also supported by the DOER and MassCEC funding. One project that Caverly highlights is an event for the community to build plastic window insulation inserts that can be temporarily installed over windows for the winter and used year after year. 

The funding will also support UMass Amherst graduate students developing new directions for energy policy and technology under the ELEVATE program. Students across a wide range of disciplines—civil and industrial engineering, comparative literature, public health, computer science, economics, environmental conservation and political science—are trained on climate science, technological aspects of the electricity system and governmental policy, all while continuing to communicate and engage with the diverse populations impacted by changes to the electricity grid. 

“These graduate students are going to be the future energy leaders of our state and our country,” says Zoe Getman-Pickering, ELEVATE program coordinator. “We want people in those high leadership positions to have a really broad understanding of the energy transition. We want our policy wonks to understand how the technology works and what its limitations and capabilities are. We want our engineers to be thinking about the equitable implications of the technology that they’re producing.”

The research these students are conducting directly supports the commonwealth’s goals for a more sustainable energy future—such as the work of a resource economist and a computer scientist to develop a more equitable way to lower carbon output through heat pump installation incentives that don’t just target those residing in large houses. As a result, Getman-Pickering says, the new model meets similar carbon reduction goals “while using those incentives much more equitably and ensuring that low-income residents were benefiting from them as well.” 

Other ELEVATE student research has included engineering more resilient offshore turbine structures; making wind energy more reliable and reducing the risk for investors; assessing cost-savings strategies for electrical and broadband utility projects; modeling options for electrifying the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority bus fleet; and studying how communities can handle solar siting conflict. Another project is taking the data from the Holyoke Community Energy Project and integrating it into industrial engineering models.

“These students … are putting incredible amounts of time and energy into building connections with the community, listening to them, figuring out what they want and need, and making sure that those voices are being heard, both at the academic level and at a policy level,” Getman-Pickering says.