Research & Policy Publications

This essay compares renewable energy and data center siting, identifying key parallels and differences and proposing a three-part framework of technology legitimacy, siting justice, and proportionality to evaluate whether infrastructure development serves the public interest.

This essay explores what it would mean for data centers to truly serve the public interest, examining how community authority, transparency, equitable distribution of benefits and burdens, and the right to refuse can create more accountable and democratic approaches to data center development.

This article examines what makes Community Benefits Agreements (CBAs) more likely to be successfully implemented and enforced, identifying the factors and governance mechanisms that help ensure promised community benefits are delivered.

Assesses stakeholder perspectives on Salem's proposed networked geothermal project and evaluates opportunities, concerns, ownership models, and financing strategies to support community-scale clean energy development.

Presents a stakeholder assessment and community benefits framework to support renewable energy siting, public engagement, and local governance for solar and battery energy storage projects in Plainfield, Massachusetts.

Explores how corporations define and implement corporate social sustainability (CSS), highlighting strategies, challenges, stakeholder engagement, and the growing integration of social sustainability into core business practices.

Develops a framework for understanding conflict-related costs in India’s renewable energy sector, emphasizing how early stakeholder engagement and preventative collaboration strategies can reduce disputes, delays, and project risks.

Examines the rapid expansion of data centers in the U.S. and explores how collaborative planning, stakeholder engagement, and policy reform can help balance AI infrastructure growth with community impacts, energy reliability, and public interest.

Examines how utility-led thermal energy networks are emerging as a key strategy to decarbonize building heating and cooling, highlighting policy trends, pilot programs, and equity considerations.

Provides a comparative analysis of siting laws across 12 states, identifying trends in state authority, permitting, public engagement, and environmental justice.

Explores models, financing, and challenges of community-owned solar to promote more equitable and locally controlled renewable energy systems.

Analyzes stakeholder perspectives and conflicts in U.S. offshore wind development, emphasizing the need for early engagement and collaborative decision-making.

Examines how CBAs can ensure equitable outcomes in renewable energy projects by formalizing community-developer agreements and reducing conflict.

Introduces a university-led clinical model to improve renewable energy siting through stakeholder engagement, conflict resolution, and energy justice.

Identifies the key social and institutional drivers of opposition to renewable projects, showing how early and inclusive engagement can reduce delays and cancellations.