We are delighted to announce Eleanor Adachi as the recipient of the 2023 Art Rosenfeld Award for Energy Efficiency!
Adachi is in her first year of a Master of Public Policy and Master of Science in Energy and Resources concurrent degree program at UC Berkeley. Adachi’s passion for designing energy policies that promote decarbonization and environmental justice began when she was part of a student-led campaign that worked against labor exploitation in the fossil fuel industry. During her undergraduate years, Adachi focused on studying clean energy technologies, and she later created a solar development decision-making framework as part of her engineering honors thesis. After graduation, Adachi worked at Resonant Energy, a Boston-based solar energy company, designing solar financing models for nonprofits and low-income homeowners. She currently works as a Senior Energy Analyst at the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), focusing on reducing and reshaping electricity demand to maintain affordable rates and incentivize customers to electrify their vehicles and buildings.
As the newest Art Rosenfeld Award recipient, Adachi will research the potential impacts of dynamic electricity pricing on reducing retail electricity costs for different customer groups. She is particularly interested in examining the California Flexible Unified Signal for Energy (CalFUSE), a dynamic electricity rate design proposed by the CPUC staff last year. Through her work, Adachi hopes to provide valuable insights on creating energy policies that promote a more resource-efficient society while making clean, reliable electricity accessible and affordable for all.
“I am very honored to be the recipient of the 2023 Art Rosenfeld Award,” said Adachi. “This award will provide valuable financial support for my research and education, and I look forward to connecting with researchers with similar interests through the California Institute for Energy and Environment.”
“I’m excited by the opportunity to conduct research that reunites my passions in both climate change and social justice,” she continued, “and hope that this award will open doorways for me to continue this work after my graduate studies as either an academic or a practitioner. I am honored to be following in the footsteps of previous Rosenfeld recipients and to be carrying on the legacy of Art Rosenfeld.”
The Art Rosenfeld Award for Energy Efficiency was established and continues to be supported by Art Rosenfeld’s friends, colleagues, and admirers, with Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) as a corporate sponsor. The award is administered by CIEE and the UC Berkeley Graduate Division to promote student research on policy and/or technology that can enable more efficient use of energy.