Sponsored Projects for Undergraduate Research

(i) The aims of the project 

California is moving towards electricity-intensive policies, promoting the electrification of all residential energy services over time. This is considered essential for a "just and sustainable transition". This work will explore everyday residential electricity users’ understandings of energy transitions, and how these vary across socio-demographic strata. Past work has highlighted the risks of inequitable electrification, including the un-affordability of energy for heating, the upfront costs of electrification (inluding retrofitting) and high energy burdens. This project aims to inform low-carbon technology adoption efforts by pushing for the inclusion of user perceptions of benefits and costs from participating in household decarbonization in current policy debates. Social science research on electrification at this early stage of its associated technologies’ diffusion can help shed light on public acceptance of these changes, opportunities and barriers from the user point of view, and understanding the opposition that may arise to the electriciation-of-everything effort. 

(ii) The fieldwork we need and the skills this will teach 

For this interview-based project, we are recruiting 100 residents in the Oakland-Berkeley area, who will participate in an open-ended semi-structured interview (conducted in English, Spanish or Mandarin) about their energy practices and attitudes towards energy transitions, with a focus on the electrification of end-uses. We will later use sub-group analysis to understand differences in household energy services across race and class, as delivered and viewed by residential electricity users.

The selected student will be trained in to conduct interviews using grounded theory practices and will also acquire experience with transcription software and interview coding.

(iii) Any specific skills we would find useful

Ideal candidates will be interested in social science research methods and fluent in English and in Spanish or Mandarin. Past experience conducting interviews in a research setting is valuable, bit not essential. Awareness of academic debates on the inequities in the adoption of rooftop solar, electric vehicles and other “green” technologies is desirable -- but again, not essential. However, a desire to learn about these issues is essential.