UTEP receives $5 million climate change research grant - KVIA
UTEP receives $5 million climate change research grant - KVIA
UTEP receives $5 million climate change research grant
EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- The University of Texas El Paso has been awarded a $4.9 million grant from the Department of Energy to research two potential climate change solutions: the storage of carbon dioxide and geothermal energy capture.
This grant it part of a partnership between UTEP, Florida State University, the University of Utah, Sandia National Laboratories, and Alma Energy LLC.
Researchers will make use of machine learning algorithms to create computational models that help with the reduction of carbon dioxide in the earth's atmosphere and facilitate access to geothermal energy.
“Our computational models will analyze the behavior of carbon dioxide across different scales, from the microscale to the macro scale, so that we can simulate and predict how long carbon dioxide will stay in the underground rock formations,” Professor Son-Young Yi said. “The work is ambitious as no model exists yet that has been able to link data about carbon dioxide’s behavior across scales, but if we’re successful, our models will help the clean energy industry understand the long-term evolution of the injected carbon dioxide and better identify optimal locations for carbon dioxide injection with respect to minimizing leakage.”
The team conducting the research hopes that this research can lead to the use of geothermal energy in the El Paso region and allow Americans a more affordable way to power their homes in the long run.
Related Knowledge Center: Climate economics
Climate change is now a driver of the world’s economy. The impact is profound:
- Catastrophic weather events — hurricanes, floods, droughts, high temperatures — are more frequent and more extreme. The cost can be measured in both the initial damage caused and the longer-term impact on the economy.
- Vulnerable communities are increasing climate-related investments, hardening infrastructure and taking other protective measures.
- Investment in carbon capture and storage technologies is increasingly rapidly.
- Governments are making investments and crafting regulations to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
On top of all of this is the cost of uncertainty. As the Fourth National Climate Assessment, released in 2018 by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, says, “The assumption that current and future climate conditions will resemble the recent past is no longer valid.”