Expected Impacts and Benefits

External significance

By strengthening the link between sustainable energy and land use, the project seeks to provide significant benefits to the environment, society and economic development. These benefits are likely since renewable resources

• are domestic energy sources that contribute to energy security and diminish dependence on foreign energy sources and world energy market prices;
• offer a significant potential for efficient land use, rural development and job creation;
• displace fossil fuels, improve the environmental quality in Illinois and mitigate climate change.

This project seeks interdisciplinary integration of the research subjects, including agriculture, geography, regional economics, biology and crop sciences, atmospheric sciences, engineering and policy aspects. Novel parts include spatial modeling of renewable energy and land use; the integration of biomass, carbon sequestration and integrated assessment of climate change; and a renewable energy initiative for Illinois that involves researchers and stakeholders. A focus on the State of Illinois could well serve as an example and offer opportunities to learn from other case studies in different regions of the country and the world.

Relevance for the State of Illinois

The project supports activities to lead the State into a pioneering role in the renewable resource sector. The timing and focus is compatible with the State’s increased interest in this field, such as the Sustainable Energy Plan to the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) which calls for both a Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard and an Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standard. Significant investment has already been made in the assembly and preliminary analysis of data bases on renewable energy options in Illinois and several other Midwest states (McCarron et al. 2003, Bournakis et al. 2005). However, these analyses were limited in their scope and did not explore fully the economy-wide and environmental implications in a more extensive form. Pursuing this will be a basic component of a sweeping initiative on clean energy policy to utilize an integrated approach on both the supply- and demand-sides to bring about the utilization of cost-effective resources and diversify the electricity mix. Investments into an integrated policy generate new jobs, save billions of dollars for consumers and businesses, and boost Illinois’s economy while reducing environmental pollution. Related initiatives have the potential to generate a significant numbers of skilled jobs in Illinois at a time when the state’s traditional economic base is eroding. While machinery to generate renewable energy may be made elsewhere, the installation and maintenance has to be done on site.

The government has several programs to provide financial payments to farmers to switch to environmentally friendly practices (e.g. the Environmental Quality Incentives Program) or to take land out of crop production for 10-15 years (e.g. the Conservation Reserve Program, CRP). In addition, in January 2006 the State launched the Illinois Conservation and Climate Initiative (ICCI) to offer farmers and other landowners the opportunity to earn and sell greenhouse gas emissions credits by adopting various conservation practices that limit airborne levels of carbon dioxide and methane (see the website www.agr.state.il.us/newsrels/r0127061.html). The project is being implemented in partnership with the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX®) that administers the world's first multi-national and multi-sector marketplace for reducing and trading greenhouse gas emissions (www.chicagoclimatex.com).

Appropriateness for the University of Illinois

This project coincedes with and contributes to the University’s Strategic Plan of January 2006 which strongly emphasizes the importance of sustainable energy, in particular in Illinois. With the Illinois Sustainable Energy and the Environment Initiative it seeks to “assemble other leading universities, corporations and private enterprises, and government in the state to develop new technologies, models, and practices that will shape national policy, promote responsible stewardship of resources”. It is also intended “to position the state of Illinois as a recognized leader in research, education, and practices to promote sustainable utilization of energy, water, and land.” The Leadership of the University gives already high priority to sustainable energy use, e.g. by demonstration projects in biomass and installation of wind power plants, in line with its Land-Grant mission. By aiming the multi-disciplinary research effort toward practical solutions and demonstrations, it strengthens the University’s lead role in the competition and collaboration with other universities. The proposed project can significantly contribute to making the University of Illinois a sustainable campus environment. While research in different aspects has been conducted on campus, the project explores the synergies and develops a research agenda that, with the successful procurement of outside funding, will significantly enhance visibility of the campus in this important area. The project supports the engagement of citizens through the workshop, publications, website, education and demonstration projects and connect these efforts to other local initiatives such as the Dudley Smith Initiative, the Committee on a Sustainable Campus Environment, Imagine a Sustainable Champaign County and student initiatives for clean energy.

International workshop

Collaboration across different levels will be strengthened through an international workshop in that combines domestic and global issues to facilitate the exchange of results and transfer them into decision-making, public debate and demonstration projects. The workshop in spring 2007 will bring together researchers and stakeholders from industry, finance, agriculture, governmental, non-governmental and international organizations to focus on the use of renewable energy as a vehicle for ensuring regional, national and international energy security. Sharing lessons in practical success stories in the renewable field, the workshop provides a platform for supporting renewable energy initiatives in Illinois that may attract support from different sources.