Photo by Mo's Portraits, Golden, Colorado
Dr. Barbara C. Farhar
Sustainable Energy Sociologist
For more than 25 years, Dr. Farhar has been a pioneer in the area of renewable and sustainable energy policy development, directing research on the interaction between technology and society and diffusion of innovations. As a Senior Policy Analyst at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), she gained national recognition for her work on the human dimensions of energy efficiency and renewable energy. Today, she is an internationally recognized expert on the use and adoption of new energy technologies.
As interest in alternative energy expands worldwide research is helping builders, public utilities, and consumers make smart energy choices. Using a combination of qualitative and quantitative analyses, she empowers informed individual choice and helps communities develop smart and sustainable energy policies and practices.
As principal investigator on a multiyear comparative case study of a new development of high performance homes (built to save 30 to 50 percent of their energy use over conventionally built homes) Farhar found that owners became increasingly satisfied with their energy-efficient products as in-home displays enabled them to track their (decreased) energy consumption and related utility savings. The findings from this study are helping to reshape the conventional wisdom about consumer interest in and market values of homes with energy-saving features.
Dr. Farhar is a senior research associate at CU's Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute. She has produced more than 240 publications and papers on the relevance of behavioral analysis to energy policy, strategic planning for federal research, public opinion about energy and environmental policy, energy efficiency R&D planning, and technology transfer. She has been published in Annual Review of Energy and the Environment, Public Opinion Quarterly, and Science. She is on the board of the Colorado Renewable Energy Society.
Select Publications:
Colorado Public Radio Interview "Does Social Conformity Lower Energy Usage?" Link to show.
B.C. Farhar, L.M. Hunter, T.M. Kirkland, and K.J. Tierney (University of Colorado-Boulder) "Community Response to Concentrating Solar Power in the San Luis Valley" 2010 NREL/SR-550-48041 June (pdf, 1.1M)
This report is about the social acceptance of utility-scale concentrating solar power (CSP) plants in the San Luis Valley, approximately 200 miles southwest of Denver, Colorado. The research focused on social factors that may facilitate and impede the adoption and implementation of CSP. During the winter of 2008-2009, interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of 25 CSP-related stakeholders inside and outside the Valley. Interviews focused on the perceived advantages and disadvantages of siting a hypothetical 100-MW CSP facility in the Valley, the level of community support and opposition to CSP development, and related issues, such as transmission. State policy recommendations based on the findings include developing education programs for Valley residents, integrating Valley decision makers into an energy-water-land group, providing training for Valley decision makers, offering workforce training, evaluating models of taxation, and forming landholder energy associations. In addition, the SLV could become a laboratory for new approaches to CSP facility and transmission siting decision-making. The author recommends that outside stakeholders address community concerns and engage Valley residents in CSP decisions. Engaging the residents in CSP and transmission decisions, the author says, should take parallel significance with the investment in solar technology.
*Farhar, Barbara C. "Advancing a Market for Zero-Energy Homes." 2008. Solar Today. 22:1,Jan. Feb. pp. 24-29.
Full report | Solar Today Article (pdf 8Mb)
Dilling, Lisa and Barbara Farhar. 2007. "Making it Easy: Institutionalizing Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy into Everyday Consumer Practice." In Creating a Climate for Change, Communicating Climate Change and Facilitating Social Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp. 359-382. (link).
Farhar, Barbara C. and Colleen Fitzpatrick. 1989. Effects of Feedback on Residential Electricity Consumption: A Literature Review. Golden, CO: Solar Energy Research Institute.
* 2008 Recipient of APEX Award for Publication Excellence
10 Tips to Increase
Your Energy Efficiency
- Turn off lights and appliances when not in use.
- Replace incandescent light bulbs with Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFL's) and save 60-75% on your electricity usage.
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Cut down on waste and phantom loads:
- Use switchable power plugs on TV's, computer monitors, and other appliances that are "on" even when they are off.
- Turn up your air conditioning a few degrees; install an evaporative cooler or whole house fan.
- Unplug the old garage refrigerator that you only need "sometimes".
- Hang dry your clothes, especially if you have an electric dryer.
- Purchase Energy Star appliances.
- Install insulated windows to reduce heating and cooling needs.
- Get an audit to discover your lifestyle carbon footprint and your next best steps for saving energy and money.
- Get an Energy Audit to evaluate how well your home is insulated and sealed, and how well your heating and cooling systems are operating.
- Purchase Renewable Energy Credits or Wind Power from your utility.
- Install solar electric or hot water (thermal) and generate your own energy at home!
Events
World Renewable Energy Forum (WREF 2012)
Congress Details:
Date: May 13-17, 2012
Place: Colorado Convention Center, Denver, Colorado
International Organizing Committee:
Susan Greene, Co-Chair, ASES
Professor Ali Sayigh, Co-Chair, WREN
Chuck Kutscher, Co-Chair, ASES, NREL
Among the Congress Sponsors are:
- Society of Building Science Educators
- American Council on Renewable Energy
Energy and Gender (EG) Section
World Renewable Energy Forum 2012
Denver, Colorado, 13-19 May 2010
The 2012 World Renewable Energy Forum (WREF 2012) will focus on how renewable energy technologies can address the world's economic, environmental, and security challenges from an international perspective as well as explore what it will take to integrate renewables into the world's energy infrastructure on a much larger scale. This international conference gathers the world's top energy experts in in covering research, technology transfer, manufacturing, installation, utilities, environment, policy, professional education, workforce development, consumer education, and small-scale distributed technologies.
WREF 2012 is being organized by the American Solar Energy Society (ASES) and the World Renewable Energy Network (WREN) and is supported by the International Solar Energy Society (ISES) and Colorado Renewable Energy Society (CRES). The EG Section is also being sponsored by the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute (RASEI) at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the Wirth Chair at the University of Colorado Denver.
WREF comes at a watershed moment in the evolution of energy sourcing. Renewable energy sources are now crossing over the grid-parity divide into mainstream use throughout the world. The Forum will examine how renewable and sustainable energy technologies address the world's economic, environmental, and security challenges at every scale from off-grid villages to gigawatt power plants.
Energy and Gender Section
In this context, the Energy and Gender (EG) Section will convene a workshop and a track of technical papers that focus on women, distributed energy and poverty alleviation. In addition, the track will focus on the role of women in sustainable energy science and technology.
A one-day workshop, "Engaging Women in Clean Energy Solutions," has been approved by the WREF International Program Committee as part of the formal WREF program. The EG Section will emphasize energy, poverty, and gender issues in the developing world. The workshop will be held Sunday, 13 May at the Colorado Convention Center, Denver, Colorado. This intensive focus on energy and gender will jump-start the conference week throughout which the EG section will chair technical sessions on energy and gender issues. Dr. Michelle Bachelet has been invited to keynote the workshop and to address the Forum's first plenary session.
A technical committee, chaired by Dr. Barbara Farhar, Ph.D., Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute (RASEI), University of Colorado at Boulder (USA), is developing the workshop. Key issues will include energy as women's business, cooking and electrification, methods for women's inclusion in clean energy solutions, and climate and energy justice.
In addition to presenting at or attending the Workshop, Workshop participants and Congress attendees will be encouraged to submit abstracts for the regular WREF 2012 technical sessions so that they and their insights, perspectives, and research findings can be integrated into the Congress's mainstream.
On the Path to Zero-Energy Homes
ZEH Continuum (pdf, 468k)
In the News
Denver Post Business Interview
Recently Published
“Advancing a Market for Zero-Energy Homes.” 2008. Solar Today, 22:1, Jan./Feb., pp. 24-29. pdf (8Mb)
Barbara Farhar and Timothy Coburn, “A New Market Paradigm for Zero-Energy Homes, A Comparative Case Study,” Environment/Science and Policy for Sustainable Development, 50: 18-32. Jan./Feb. 2008.
A New Market Paradigm for Zero-Energy Homes: The Comparative San Diego Case Study
B. C. Farhar and T. C. Coburn, December 2006
Executive Summary (pdf, 105K)
Vol 1 (pdf, 5Mb)
Vol 2 (Appendixes) (pdf, 15.6Mb)
Abstract
We studied the first development of 306 high-performance homes by a production builder in the United States from 2001-2006 using a diffusion-of-innovations perspective. These homes were highly energy-efficient and came with solar water heaters standard. One- third came with 1.2 PV systems standard and buyers could opt for 1.2 or 2.4 PV systems in the remaining PV-eligible homes. The study focused on the builder experience, market response to high-performance homes, increases in home values over time, and the consumption and cost of electricity and gas in the high-performance and adjacent comparison homes. The comparison community of 103 homes was built by a different builder, but was of similar vintage, size, and price. Although built to title 24 standards then in effect, the comparison homes were offered with no special energy or solar features standard. The study addresses the home sales prices, resale prices, the uptake of optional PV systems, the demographics and other characteristics of the home buyers, the role of energy in home purchase decisions, satisfaction, policy preferences, and utility consumption and costs in these homes based on data provided by SDG&E. A new way of thinking about offering new ZEHs is discussed.
Recognition
Dr. Farhar received the Solar Pioneer Award at the World Renewable Energy Congress-IX in Florence, Italy, on August 23, 2006 for her work on increasing the understanding of the human dimensions of energy efficiency and renewable energy, including gender and energy and public opinion about energy.
The West Chamber named her an Outstanding Woman of Jefferson County on November 17, 2006 for her passion for life and her accomplishments in social scientific research and her international work.
She chairs the Technical Committee on Gender-Equitable Development and is a member of the Policies Committee for the World Renewable Energy Congress-X, Glasgow, Scotland, August 2008.
Updated: Thursday, 29-Dec-2011 10:48:11 PST