Caldeira Lab

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News

Jul

2021

Green hydrogen production from curtailed wind and solar power

By Carnegie HQ

Washington, DC— Designing future low-carbon energy systems to use power generated in excess of the grid’s demands to produce hydrogen fuel could substantially lower electricity costs, according to ...

Jun

2021

How to build a better wind farm

By Carnegie HQ

Washington, DC— Location, location, location—when it comes to the placement of wind turbines, the old real estate adage applies, according to new research published in Proceedings of the National ...

Mar

2021

Algae growing on dead coral could paint a falsely rosy portrait of reef health

By Carnegie HQ

Washington, DC— Algae colonizing dead coral are upending scientists’ ability to accurately assess the health of a coral reef community, according to new work from a team of marine science experts led ...

Dec

2020

Infrastructure key to balancing climate and economic goals in developing countries

By Carnegie HQ

Washington, DC— Developing nations have an opportunity to avoid long-term dependence on fossil fuel-burning infrastructure as they move toward economic stability, even if they are slow to cut carbon ...

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Caldeira Lab Publications

Carnegie Energy Innovation

CALDEIRA LAB LEGACY SITE

Lab PI

Ken Caldeira

Senior Staff Scientist Emeritus

Global Ecology

Carnegie Institution for Science

kcaldeira@carnegiescience.edu
650-704-7212
Office:
260 Panama Street
Stanford, CA 94305, US

Profile

Bio

Ken Caldeira is a Senior Scientist (emeritus) in Carnegie Institution for Science's Department of Global Ecology. He is also a Senior Scientist at Breakthrough Energy, a non-profit organization aimed at "helping the world get to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions while making sure everyone has access to the clean, affordable, and reliable energy they need to thrive." Among Caldeira’s key contributions to science are his relatively early recognition of the threats posed by ocean acidification, his pioneering investigations into the environmental consequences of intentional intervention in the climate system (“geoengineering”), and the first peer-reviewed study to estimate near-zero-emission energy needs consistent with a 2°C climate stabilization target. He has also played a central role in helping to elucidate what our understanding of long-term geochemical cycles implies for the fate of today’s carbon dioxide emissions. More recently, he has been focusing on trying to understand what sorts of energy systems could facilitate a transition to a near-zero emission economy that will allow both human and natural systems to flourish.

Biographies for Ken Caldeira

Affiliation

Affiliation:

DGE Faculty

Labs:

Caldeira Lab

Download:

CaldeiraCurrentCV20200330.pdf

Websites

Projects

Carnegie Energy Innovation

People

Enrico Antonini (Postdoctoral Fellow)
Enrico is a Postdoctoral Research Scientist for the Carnegie Institution for Science, Department of Global Ecology at Stanford University. His research aims to understand the physics of wind power extraction for regional-scale wind farms. Enrico is investigating the efficiency of large wind farms and which physical parameters control their power extraction.

Before joining the Carnegie Institution for Science, Enrico conducted research in wind energy, computational fluid dynamics and optimization algorithms with the goal of advancing the knowledge of wind turbine aerodynamics and creating new design frameworks for the wind turbine industry.
Sara Ashfaq (Postdoctoral Fellow)
Sara is a Postdoctoral Research Scientist at the Carnegie Institute for the Science at Stanford University. Her research focuses on the Sustainable Development, energy-environment-economic (E3) modeling, Renewable Energy Management and Electricity Market. She is broadly interested in the Idealized energy system modeling for net-zero emission energy-systems.

Prior to Stanford, Sara was a Research Assistant at The Australian Research Council (ARC), Hub for Integrated Energy Solutions, Sydney, where she researched microgrid control and management, to provide solutions to a more sustainable, secure, reliable and economically efficient energy supply for Australia.

Sara holds an interdisciplinary Ph.D. degree in Electrical Power and Energy Systems Engineering from University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, Australia. She is the recipient of the Australian Government Research Training Program (RTP) Scholarship.

Outside of work, Sara participates in volunteer work for natural crisis, environmental conservation, bushfire and community services.
Michael Dioha (Postdoctoral Fellow)
Michael Dioha is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Carnegie Institution for Science Department of Global Ecology at Stanford University. His research interests revolve around energy-environment-economic (E3) modeling, the quantification of energy/climate scenarios, and interdisciplinary issues in energy and environmental justice, especially in the Global South.

Michael plays advisory and analysis roles for international organizations, including the International Renewable Energy Agency. He also sits on multiple advisory boards, including the Sustainability Expert Advisory Forum of the Global Network for Sustainable Development.

Before joining the Carnegie Institution for Science, Michael was a Research Analyst at the TERI School of Advanced Studies, New Delhi, where he researched net-zero emission pathways for India. Beyond academic research, Michael also advocates for innovative approaches that promote just and equitable socio-technical transitions in Africa.

Michael holds an interdisciplinary Ph.D. degree in Energy & Environment and a B.Sc. degree in Mechanical Engineering. Outside of work, Michael enjoys playing soccer and cycling.
Lei Duan (Visiting Scholar)
Lei Duan's research topic is about modeling the climate response to external forcing, especially the global scale geoengineering schemes during his PhD. At Carnegie, he will continue working on climate simulations and also helping with the energy modeling work in Ken Caldeira's group. He had a wonderful experience when he was here previously, and feels happy to come back and work with everyone in Carnegie.
Manoela Romano de Orte (Postdoctoral Fellow)
Manoela Romanó de Orte is a Postdoctoral Research Scientist in in the Caldeira Lab at the Carnegie Institution for Science's Department of Global Ecology. She is a marine scientist, studying the fate and the effects of pollutants in the coastal environment. Her research considers traditional pollutants, such as heavy metals, alongside emerging contaminant threats. These emerging threats include plastics and the global effects of humans dumping carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere, which warms and acidifies the ocean. Manoela's latest work focuses on the response of coral reef ecosystems to climate change and to plastic pollution.
Tyler Ruggles (Research Associate)
I am a scientist studying low carbon energy transitions. How do we create a low carbon energy system? What could that system look like? What technological breakthroughs are necessary? These are some of the questions which motivate my research.

My current work focuses on studying the interannual variability of renewable energy resources and potential consequences for a highly-renewable grid. I also model the conversion of electric power to liquid fuels or hydrogen to study the benefits these technologies can bring to the grid including increased flexibility.

Before starting on energy systems research, I completed a PhD in particle physics while based at CERN working for the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Leslie Willoughby (Science Writer)
Leslie's first love was a horned toad that lived in her backyard in Albuquerque. It disappeared over winter, emerged in spring, and showed her that nature changes over time. Throughout childhood, she yearned to share that lizard's world with others.

In college she studied environmental interpretation. Afterward, at the newly created Ohio EPA, she funded programs that regulated scrubbers in coal-fired power plants and improved sewage treatment facilities. Later, as a science teacher, she set the lab tables with a new narrative each morning. Monday’s tale might compare skeletons; Tuesday’s could mimic a lunar eclipse.

When climate change became the biggest nature story, Leslie signed on as a reporter in the Eastern Sierra. While forest fires rage and drought starves California's snowpack and water supply, Leslie heeds the call for epic writing muscle. She works out every day.

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Senior Staff Scientist Emeritus

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