Xiaojing Xu and Gerald Jones give final presentation in Summer 2020 REU Lecture Series
Join us for the final lecture in CURENT's Summer 2020 REU Lecture Series. Zoom link is here and password is 298268. All interested students are welcome to attend. On Tuesday, July 21, Xiaojing Xu and Gerald Jones from the University of Tennessee, will present Understanding the Barriers of Rooftop Photovoltaic Adaption.
For more information about the series and upcoming lectures, please visit the Summer 2020 REU page.
July 21, 2020 - Tuesday from 10:00 am to 11:00 am
Understanding the Barriers of Rooftop Photovoltaic Adaption
Xiaojing Xu and Gerald Jones, University of Tennessee
Abstract: Rooftop Photovoltaic (RPV) or solar power generation is one of the most widely accepted renewable technologies and understanding the reasons and barriers to its adoption is one of the often-studied questions researched today. From researchers to policy makers understanding what causes people to adoption solar power or not will help encourage and influence the spreading of the renewable technology. Our multidisciplinary group leveraged a Machine learning and statistical analysis tools to help tackle a big data set known as Deep Solar provided by Stanford that identified the number and location of rooftop solar installations at the census tract level across the continental US. This study used census tracts as analysis units and investigated the major influencing factors among a variety of variables including policies, demographic features, population features, geography and climate, dwelling features, energy usage, energy price, commuting habits, etc. We compared the influencing factors in TVA-service area and a broader area. The effect of price was compared in areas with different levels of residential solar penetration, and varying levels of solar adoption incentive programs. Our findings indicated that things that many of the aforementioned can help indicate the level of solar adoption at the census tract level among other factors.
Bio: Xiaojing Xu has a Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology with a focus on social psychology and decision making. Her current lines of research include identifying the drivers of and barriers to adopting home energy management systems and renewable technologies, developing customer segments for tailored demand response programs and rewards, promoting office energy efficiency by examining the triad of individual, group, and building-related factors, and exploring the energy affordability issues of low-income communities.
Bio: Gerald Jones has BS degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He is currently working toward a masters in Computer Science with a focus on machine learning. His current research focus is analyzing the most influential and predicatively powerful factors related to various metrics of solar adoption across the US and from a state by state and regional perspective.
