The Stanford Energy Seminar has been a mainstay of energy engagement at Stanford for nearly 20 years and is one of the flagship programs of the Precourt Institute for Energy. We aim to bring a wide variety of perspectives to the Stanford community – academics, entrepreneurs, utilities, non-profits, and more. 

Abstract: Achieving net zero emissions by midcentury in the US will require a daunting pace of clean and renewable energy deployment, accelerating to 6-8 times the current rate of project development and amounting to land area requirements equivalent to that of California for just onshore wind and solar development alone. Generation and transmission land use and siting related conflicts have emerged as a formidable barrier to scaling up renewables. This talk will explore the scale of infrastructure development needed to achieve decarbonization goals in the US and the role of land-sparing and low-conflict strategies for wind and solar development. The talk will present results from recent projects that examine the scalability of agrivoltaics, the dual use of land for solar energy production and agriculture, and the co-location of onshore wind and solar PV projects.

Bio: Grace Wu (she/her) is an Assistant Professor in the Environmental Studies Program at UC Santa Barbara, which is situated on the unceded lands and waters of the Indigenous Chumash people. ​Dr. Wu conducts research and policy engagement on spatial planning for climate action on land. Broadly, she uses spatial science approaches to support the planning of sustainable, multi-use landscapes that advance climate goals and protect biodiversity. Her current main research areas are (1) spatial planning of sustainable low carbon energy systems; and (2) integrating climate solutions into sustainable land systems. Before joining UCSB, Dr. Wu was a Smith Conservation Fellow at The Nature Conservancy and the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis as well as a UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellow at the John Muir Institute of the Environment at UC Davis. She was trained in systems thinking and interdisciplinary approaches in the Energy and Resources Group at UC Berkeley where she received an MS and PhD. She received an MPhil from the University of Cambridge and a BA from Pomona College.

Anyone with an interest in energy is welcome to join! You can enjoy seminars in the following ways:

• Attend live. The auditorium may change quarter by quarter, so check each seminar event to confirm the location. Explore the current quarter's schedule.
• Watch live in a browser livestream if available. Check each seminar event for its unique livestream URL.
• Watch recordings of past seminars 
  • Available on the Past Energy Seminars page and the Energy Seminars playlist of the Stanford Energy YouTube channel
• (For students) Take the seminar as a 1-unit class (CEE 301/ENERGY 301/MS&E 494)

If you'd like to join the Stanford Energy Seminar mailing list to hear about upcoming talks, sign up here.