Energy News – Institute for Energy Solutions

Call for Abstracts – ASME Energy & Sustainability Conference

ASME has extended their call for presentation abstracts for their July 8-10 Energy and Sustainability Conference at Westminster, CO, July 8–10, 2025. The abstracts deadline is now due on March 26. Submit your presentation abstracts ASAP! This year’s theme, “Decarbonization at Scale,” features tracks on thermal energy storage, sustainable buildings, concentrated solar power, carbon capture, AI for energy, hydrogen, and more. Visit the conference website to learn more and submit your abstract.

About Amanda Ullman: IES’s new Research Specialist

Amanda Ullman has just joined IES as a Research Specialist. In this role, she will facilitate grant proposal development and energy research at the University of Michigan through ideation, grant writing, team coordination, and project management. Her aim is to help foster interdisciplinary research and community building across UM faculty and disciplines.

Amanda has an interdisciplinary academic background. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Studies from UCLA and a Master of Environmental Management from Duke University, with a concentration on Energy and the Environment and certificates in “International Development Policy” and “Latin American and Caribbean Studies.” During her Masters, she gained skills in energy systems modeling, using optimization techniques, simulation methods, and data analysis to evaluate and solve complex problems in energy planning and policy.

In 2024, Amanda completed her PhD in Energy Planning at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her dissertation employed qualitative and quantitative research methods to evaluate the environmental and social impacts of policies for sustainable and just energy transitions (particularly in low- and middle-income countries.) The dissertation is composed of three papers:

1. Environmental Impacts Associated with Hydrogen Production in La Guajira, Colombia: This study uses life cycle assessment methodology to assess the projected water consumption and greenhouse gas, criteria air pollutant, and trace metal emissions associated with Colombia’s proposed plans to develop their national hydrogen industry.

2. Are global efforts coordinated for a Just Transition? A review of civil society, financial, government, and academic Just Transition frameworks: This study mixes narrative review and qual to quant transformation methods to assess temporal and regional trends in high-profile Just Transition plans.

3. Corruption, Internet, and Community Connection: Missing Pieces in Prominent Just Transition Frameworks: This study integrates findings from Paper 2 and field work conducted during a Fulbright Fellowship in La Guajira, Colombia. During her fellowship Amanda conducted Spanish-language interviews to understand historically marginalized Indigenous and Afrocolombian communities’ priorities and barriers for achieving a “Just Transition.” The study’s qualitative findings were coded to permit comparison of policies detailed in the Just Transition plans from Paper 2 against the needs of the Colombian communities and highlight gaps in global Just Transition policymaking.

Her recent postdoctoral work has assessed the local impacts of repurposing abandoned oil and gas wells for geothermal heat extraction, specifically through a case study on the geothermal resources underlying the fossil fuel producing region of New Mexico’s Permian Basin. At Michigan, she is interested in supporting interdisciplinary work combatting energy poverty and promoting economic development in historically marginalized communities, continuing to research geothermal and hydrogen industry development, and gaining greater experience in topics like AI and energy, nuclear energy (particularly fusion), and other emerging technologies.

University of Michigan Dearborn Alum and student led GRID Alternatives Students for Sustainable Energy

Two students at the University of Michigan Dearborn campus, Christian Cannon and Alexis Thompson, saw an opportunity to develop more hands-on experience for installing solar energy systems by bringing GRID Alternatives to U-M Dearborn. Cannon, who is now a 2024 environmental science graduate working as an intern at Walker-Miller Energy Services in Detroit, and Thompson, who is completing a degree in mathematics, initiated the student chapter for GRID alternatives shortly after connecting with the founders of GRID alternatives in 2017. Students participating take part in an immersive experience called solar spring break and students also volunteer to install panels in low-income neighborhoods. Over the course of three solar spring breaks, the group installed more than 40 kW of capacity and they enjoyed the opportunity to learn about how their hands-on engineering skills can improve others’ lives. They are now looking for more opportunities for leading solar and sustainability-focused projects. Read more about their efforts here.

A Michigan city’s ‘sustainable energy utility’ got the green light from voters. What now?

SmartCitiesDive dove into Ann Arbor’s recently passed proposal for a sustainable energy utility (SEU). This supplemental utility will focus on rooftop solar and battery storage and then eventually focus on microgrids, adding to the robustness of the existing grid in the city. The proposal for this duplicative grid structure passed with 79% of votes on November 5th and the SEU will have a 2 year ramp up to improve electricity resiliency and reliability. The SEU will pay the initial install cost and recover investment over time through charging customers for the energy the rooftop panels generate. Read more about the SEU and plans for the city here.

Notable Funding Opportunities

Now available: Funding Opportunity webpage! The funding opportunities IES publishes through email and newsletters are included in a funding opportunities page. See this page!

Charging the Future: U-M Researchers Spark Innovation in EV Batteries

Researchers Jeff Sakamoto and Neil Dasgupta, backed by an $11 million US DOE EFRC grant, are partnering with Oak Ridge National Lab and others to improve battery fuel cell development and manufacturing. The team looks towards the future of Li-Ion and the future beyond Li-Ion, largely looking towards solid state batteries with fast ion conducting ceramic. The project team, MUSIC, embraces their partnerships and opportunities for cutting edge research in energy storage. Watch the video on their efforts here.