Agency

Cornell University

Location

Ithaca, New York

Job Category

Post Doctoral Appointments

Salary

~$56k/yr + benefits

Start Date

03/01/2023

Last Date to Apply

01/31/2023

Website

http://www.stevegrodsky.com/opportunities

Description

Solar energy provides a necessary means by which to mitigate climate change and to facilitate the energy transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy globally. However, solar energy development is a major driver of land-use change and there currently exist great potential for land-use competition between solar energy development, agriculture, and biodiversity conservation. While co-location of agriculture or conservation and solar energy may be possible, research on the subject is nascent and industry buy-in is questionable. Current trends in solar energy development in New York, for example, point towards land-use competition as a primary concern among agricultural stakeholders, presumably because co-location of solar and agriculture in not yet an industrial reality. A primary challenge for maintaining both agricultural and energy production into the future is deciphering the ecological value of lands and resources to evaluate sustainable siting of renewable energy and promote land-use efficiency and techno-ecological synergies. The postdoc will collaborate with Dr. Steve Grodsky (U.S. Geological Survey/Cornell University) and Dr. Liz Kallies (The Nature Conservancy; “TNC”). This 2-year postdoctoral scholar position is funded by the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability. Our project aims to inform sustainable solar energy development by elucidating key biodiversity and ecosystem-service based values of lands in the land-use matrix of agriculture, solar energy, and conservation in New York State. We will conglomerate existing datasets pertaining to agriculture, solar energy development, and conservation to build a spatial model for simultaneous solar energy development, agricultural production, and biodiversity conservation that is optimized based on generation of ecosystem services and increased biodiversity values across land-uses in New York State. The spatial model will elucidate the ecosystem-service based values derived from variable land-use configurations at the agriculture, solar energy, and biodiversity nexus on a sliding scale from current solar energy footprints (land-use competition scenario) to maximized co-location (hypothetical land sharing model). We also will incorporate ecological data collected in the field from two concurrent projects in New York: 1) grassland birds and solar energy, funded by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation; and 2) pollinators and solar energy, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy. The rationale for our approach is that the absence of holistic models for sustainable solar energy development has limited the ability to site solar energy based on factors beyond technical potential, operational costs, and other industrial considerations. By addressing ecosystem-service based values, we can more readily relate our ecological findings to the current economic drivers of decision-making regarding solar energy development and agriculture such as energy production and crop production, respectively. The pathway to impact for this research is rooted in applied ecological modeling that can be used by stakeholders to inform on the ground management of biodiversity and maintenance of ecosystem services that promotes sustainable agricultural and energy production in New York State and beyond. The Nature Conservancy has a vested interest in better understanding solar energy-biodiversity interactions to inform their conservation efforts. We will build off existing modeling efforts by TNC to characterize sustainable siting of solar energy development, including Power of Place in the American West and California. Our project will focus in at a finer scale (NY State) to demonstrate how different clean energy scenarios result in choices and inherent tradeoffs for local stakeholders, which, in turn, will help refine application of existing TNC siting tools. TNC also has developed a low-impact solar siting analysis for North Carolina that largely is based on biodiversity. TNC wishes to build out more holistic versions of these public-facing tools that account for diverse socioecological variables and ecosystem services. A deliverable of this research is to produce science-based maps (e.g., heat maps spanning 100% co-location scenarios to 100% land competition scenarios) and information that allows facilitation of proactive and informed decision-making, thereby avoiding siting conflicts that cause costly delays in the clean energy transition. Our primary research activities will include accumulation of datasets, engagement with stakeholders, geospatial modeling, exploration of ecosystem service value systems, and dissemination of results in the form of peer-reviewed publications and publicly available datasets and maps.

Qualifications

Qualifications: Ph.D. is ecology or related field, with experience developing ecosystem service models and/or landscape-level geospatial models | Proven capacity to publish in peer-reviewed outlets in a timely manner | Quantitative and creative ability to develop complex models with novel theoretical underpinnings and applicability to pressing issues surrounding a sustainable and just energy transition. To apply, please send a cover letter and CV to Dr. Steve Grodsky (grodsky@cornell.edu). We will consider applications on a rolling basis until the position in filled. The initial deadline for applications is 31 January 2023. Start date negotiable.

Contact Person

Dr. Steve Grodsky

Contact eMail

grodsky@cornell.edu

Comments are closed.