JISEA Convenes Science Fiction Storytellers Team and NREL Researchers To Envision the Future
The NREL Transforming Energy podcast discusses NREL's exciting collaboration with science fiction authors.
In the 1940 short story Let There Be Light, Robert A. Heinlein described panels that absorbed sunlight and turned it into electricity—14 years before scientists at Bell Labs developed the first solar photovoltaic cells. Since the genre's earliest days, science fiction has envisioned technologies that later became reality.
In the spirit of this synergy, eight science fiction writers recently converged upon the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) for "Visioning Energy: A Science Fiction Author-Energy Researcher Collaboration Workshop" hosted by NREL's Joint Institute for Strategic Energy Analysis (JISEA). During the day-long event, the authors learned about NREL's groundbreaking renewable energy research and collaborated with NREL researchers to craft visions of clean energy futures.
The workshop had two major goals: to spark conversations that might inspire future research and to inspire storytelling grounded in real renewable energy achievements.
"NREL is an applied lab, which means our research is usually thinking about the next 10 to 20 years," explained NREL Laboratory Program Manager of Analysis Coordination Mark Ruth, who led much of the event's planning and coordination. "We hoped that these conversations with storytellers who, limited only by their imaginations, are thinking bigger and farther into the future than we researchers often get to, would help our researchers envision even more ambitious energy innovations."
Brave New World-Building
The day opened with a tour of the NREL South Table Mountain Campus, during which the authors got to see NREL's pioneering renewable energy advancements firsthand.
"I texted my mom to tell her I got to see Kestrel, the world's largest supercomputer dedicated to energy efficiency and renewable energy," recalled Molly Tanzer, one of the authors who attended the event. "It blew my mind to see that."
After the tour, the authors sat down with NREL researchers for a collaborative world-building activity, which invited the participants to break into small groups and imagine the world's energy systems in the year 2100, the technologies needed to realize these systems, and the social and environmental consequences that might emerge.
"As science fiction writers, we're always worldbuilding," said Glen Engel-Cox, another author. "We ask ourselves, ‘What might a future world look like? What problems might it have, and what advantages?' These conversations were great for imagining the tensions that might arise in these future worlds, because, as any writer will tell you, where there's tension, there's potential for story."
The activity resulted in four distinct scenarios for the world in 2100, which are outlined and analyzed in the newly released "Visioning Energy: A Science Fiction Author-Energy Researcher Collaboration Workshop Recap Report." The day concluded with a short author panel and book signing event, which was open to NREL staff who wanted to meet the authors and exchange ideas.
"The workshop was the first of its kind, and we are excited about the attention we've received from researchers and the publishing industry," said JISEA Director Elizabeth Doris. "We are planning for a larger event in the coming year that will further diversify the slate of authors and increase the collaborative aspect of the workshop, to bring greater value to both the author and researcher attendees."
Workshopping Future Workshops
"Visioning Energy" joins the portfolio of multidisciplinary workshops JISEA hosts to develop crosscutting insights into emerging clean energy challenges and opportunities. Through workshops, the institute leverages a diverse network made of up clean energy stakeholders in research, industry, universities, and nonprofits to identify research gaps and kickstart collaborative projects to address them.
The institute often tailors convenings around specific topics and challenges of interest to partners and network members. Recent JISEA workshop partnerships include a partnership with the Colorado State University Ag Innovation Center to convene agricultural industry stakeholders, from farmers to investors, to discuss successes and opportunities for the U.S. agricultural decarbonization strategy.
"Developing a comprehensive understanding of what challenges and opportunities lie ahead of us relies on hearing from a diverse group of stakeholders," said JISEA Director Elizabeth Doris. "Our workshops enable us to bring those voices to the table and garner insights that can inform the direction of NREL and our partners' research and investments."
If you are interested in JISEA's technical workshop and sponsorship capabilities, reach out to Elizabeth Doris. To learn more about Visioning Energy, read the recap report.