Berkeley Lab has partnered with the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Yale University to support student-led research on solar energy markets and economics. This effort is part of a broader collaboration between Berkeley Lab, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and researchers from these universities to analyze PV pricing and adoption dynamics. The student-led projects are being conducted within capstone or other advanced economics and policy courses, and rely to varying degrees on Berkeley Lab’s Tracking the Sun dataset.
Listed below are the student-led research projects completed to-date. Please note that these reports are provided in the form “as submitted” for course completion; they are not national lab publications.
The University of Texas at Austin, Policy Research Project, Spring 2018
Summary of UT Austin Student Capstone Research Projects
Exploring the Impacts of Networks on Informational and Economic Interventions in Solar PV Adoption
Amara Uyanna and Matthew Haley
Do Google Search Trends Allow us to Better Understand Residential Adoption of Solar?
Qiuying Lai, Ghida Ismail, Ryan Williams
Drivers of Innovation: An Analysis of Innovativeness Across Technologies and Domains
Alejandra Tello, Who Gwon Lee, and Ryan Carlino
Low and Middle- Income PV Adoption: Business Models and Policy Correlates
Samuel Bennett, Maryam Rasti, and Olivia Loa
An Exploration of Property-Value Impacts Near Utility-Scale Solar Installations
Leila Al-Hamoodah, Kavita Koppa, Eugenie Schieve, D. Cale Reeves, Ben Hoen, Joachim Seel, and Varun Rai
How Can Federal Programs Encourage New Business Models? Midterm Evaluation of the Solar in Your Community Challenge
Marisa Calder, Hayden English, and William Frankel
Supply-side Analysis of Residential Solar Photovoltaic Financing Products
Jenny Sauer and Jingwei Meng
University of Wisconsin-Madison, Energy Analysis & Policy Capstone, Spring 2017
Effects of Salt River Project’s Demand-Based Rate Change on the Rooftop Solar Market in Maricopa County, Arizona
Ana Dyreson, Chris Hoffman, Aaron Prichard, and Amanda Schienebeck
Yale University, Energy Economics & Policy Analysis, Spring 2017
The Effect of Austin Energy’s Value-of-Solar Tariff on Solar Installation Rates
Maria Amodio, Gyan de Silva, Nate Kaufman, Lucy Kessler, Thuy Phung, and Isabelle Riu
Solar PV Installation Price Dispersion in the U.S.
Kathryne Cleary, Josh Constanti, Franz Hochstrasser, Kelly Kneeland, and Matthew Moroney
Impacts of Solar Policies on Low and Moderate Income PV Adoption
Ellen Abramowitz, Lynsey Gaudioso, Annie Guo, Lucas Johnson and Jason Warrington
Increasing Solar Penetration in US by Reducing Soft Cost
Beryl Ajwang, Danjing Lei, Lun Ou, and Rohini Mukherjee