Bringing Wild Energy to UC Davis

The Wild Energy Initiative is a new initiative of the John Muir Institute of the Environment at UC Davis. The mission of the Muir Institute is to discover, research and solve pressing environmental and human health challenges at a time of unprecedented social connectedness, technological development and global change.

At the Muir Institute, we translate our vision into practice though key strategic initiatives, like the Wild Energy. Our strategic initiatives are intended to align and transform the Muir Institute and its centers by engaging in unifying, cross-sectoral research across our network of applied experts. We create new, multi-disciplinary partnerships to solve issues at the center of the “environmental nexus,” or the interface between people and the planet. Wild Energy exemplifies the type of interdisciplinary research we aim to conduct by examining the interactions between energy, life, and the environment, furthering the mission of the Muir Institute to address the most pressing and complex challenges facing the 21st century.

The Muir Institute’s cross-cutting efforts are fueled by a simple principle: healthy ecosystems build healthy people, which then result in healthy ecosystems. We believe that all of humanity has role to play in conserving nature and using Earth’s resources responsibly and sustainably. We strive to identify “win-win” solutions for a prosperous and equitable economy and biologically diverse environment.

Collaboration and cooperation are key ingredients behind our almost two decades of success. By tapping into an unrivaled community of more than 300 scholars from the natural and social sciences, humanities, mathematical, engineering and medical fields, we consider virtually every angle of environmental quality and sustainability – from economics to policy, science to human health, conservation to management. The diverse centers and programs within the Muir Institute are solving challenges facing citizens of California, the United States and the world.

Statement of Purpose

The Wild Energy Initiative facilitates impartial research and education on interactions between energy development and Earth, including its systems and species, to address exigent sustainability issues.

Mission Statement

Our mission is to:

1. Produce non-partisan and actionable research products that promote better understanding of the ecology of energy for human use, including ecological effects, trade-offs, and synergies of energy systems;
2. Develop scientific data and consensus to support planning and policy decisions related to sustainable energy development; and
3. Support knowledge transfer across global communities of energy and environmental stakeholders, including but not limited to communities and tribes, concerned citizens, industry, intergovernmental and governmental agencies, non-profit organizations, scientists, and urban planners.

Research Areas

• Agrivoltaics, rangevoltaics, and floatovoltaics
• Ecology of conventional, nuclear, and renewable energy systems
• Ecological interactions of siting, construction, operations and maintenance, and decommissioning of energy systems and supporting infrastructure
• Ecological trade-offs, costs, and benefits of energy systems
• Energy decisions knowledge systems and decision support tools for ecological sustainability
• Structured environmental assessment methods and applications of energy systems
• Energy geography: cultural, physical, and biological
• Food, energy, water, and land nexus issues
• Policy analysis of energy ecology challenges and solutions