Research and Development

Cornell includes hydropower in six research projects receiving over $900,000

Cornell includes hydropower in six research projects receiving over $900,000
(photo courtesy Cornell)

The Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability has awarded over $900,000 in seed funding to support six research projects through its Academic Venture Fund, including one on “rethinking hydropower.”

The project is called Rethinking hydropower to satisfy energy, climate, and biodiversity goals. Researchers are from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS), Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science and Cornell Engineering

According to the research proposal: To curb climate change, the share of renewables in the global electricity mix must triple by 2030. Alongside solar and wind, hydropower remains the world’s dominant renewable energy source and is projected to double to reach global decarbonization goals. Yet, hydropower expansion impacts river ecosystems, setting up tradeoffs between energy production, greenhouse gas emissions, and biodiversity risks.

To advance sustainable energy development, Cornell researchers will develop strategies for integrated hydropower that combines multiple energy production sources including floating photovoltaics and retrofitting non-powered dams to increase energy production without further dam construction. An interdisciplinary team with non-governmental organization, government, and external university partners will assess 20 ecologically sensitive river basins where hydropower is being considered, with the goal of protecting biodiversity while increasing renewable energy.

The other five projects awarded AVF grants this year are:

  • Increasing equity and promoting climate resiliency for low-income families through stingless beekeeping in the flooded savannah of the Orinoquia Basin
  • Seaweed for climate mitigation: Removing barriers to scaling up in Southeast Asia by improving macroalgae quantity and quality
  • Can the prevention of diseases in cattle reduce their footprint?
  • Adaptive agricultural landscapes in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco
  • Integrating primary pandemic prevention into mainstream policy, funding, and practice through one health spillover investigation

The AVF seeds original, interdisciplinary research that is not likely to find funding elsewhere because the projects are novel, risky, need early data to establish traction or involve new teams working together. Projects span the entire range of sustainability topics, prioritizing resilient rural-urban systems across Cornell’s primary research themes — Food, Climate, Energy, and One Health.

David Lodge, the Francis J. DiSalvo Director of Cornell Atkinson, said many AVF-funded researchers go on to secure larger external grants. “Academic institutions excel at imagining innovative new ideas, but we need partnerships with community organizations, governments and businesses to translate research to practice,” Lodge said. “The Academic Venture Fund supports research, and importantly, it builds connections between our research community and external partners in support of global sustainability.”