Emily Zhao, a graduate of Duke University, is the recipient of the 2024 Project Support Award Australia for her research in flexible smart home electrification. Emily will spend a year analyzing and collecting data, in collaboration with the University of New South Wales to determine network and household incentives and barriers to implementing flexible demand technologies. This supplemental support from the Lois Roth Foundation will allow Emily to expand the breadth of her research to emphasize barriers to entry in flexible energy technology adoption within underserved and low-income communities.

Receiving the Lois Roth Foundation Award will enable me to broaden the scope of my renewable energy optimization research, with a heightened emphasis on equity and uplifting underserved communities. Leveraging my previous research experience in environmental justice within the U.S. and qualitative analysis, I aim to highlight the significance of including people from all socioeconomic backgrounds and indigenous peoples in energy research. I am profoundly grateful to the foundation, its review committee, and staff for this invaluable opportunity.

Emily will also explore incentives to promote flexible energy technologies that align with the economic realities of indigenous and low-income households and complement existing lifestyles. According to Emily, this valuable research opportunity, exclusive to Australia due to their leadership in solar energy, can provide invaluable insights to help the U.S in overcoming its own solar adoption challenges.