Energy Equity Policy Lab: Spatial Planning for Renewables

Even where policy leaders are striving to center equity in rapid energy transitions, the pathways to clean energy economies are often described by techno-economic models that have limited ability to assess the distributional implications of different scenarios. This course focuses on methods to translate high-level, spatially coarse research findings into actionable policy and technology investment decisions at the local scale. Through lab exercises to develop GIS skills, participants will collaborate with a public service partner to select a study area, identify a spatial dataset representing renewable energy candidate project areas, use site suitability analysis, perform statistical summaries of the dataset, and visualize portfolios of future renewable energy resources that could inform stakeholder engagement on decarbonization pathways that center equity. Pre-requisite: Instructor permission: see syllabus on syllabus.stanford.edu/