Dustin Mulvaney, an environmental studies professor at San José State, studies solar energy and how it can help solve environmental problems.
With decades of experience studying solar energy systems and its broader social impacts, Mulvaney now finds himself at the forefront of a groundbreaking project: the California Solar Canal Initiative.
The California Solar Canal Initiative aims to install solar panels over California’s vast canal system, reducing water evaporation while generating clean energy. This is a dual solution to water loss due to evaporation and the need for clean energy production, according to a March 26 SJSU News Center article.
Mulvaney, who first wrote about this concept in a 2019 Nature Sustainability paper, will be contributing to the initiative as part of its environmental justice research team, according to the same source.
The California Water Plan, which is updated every five years, outlines how the state aims to manage its water resources sustainably and fairly, according to the California Department of Water Resources.
“I was working on pollution control in an engineering job and realized that I wanted to address the systemic sustainability issues rather than work on ‘end-of-pipe’ solutions,” Mulvaney said.
Before becoming a professor, Mulvaney worked as a chemical process engineer and later at a bioremediation startup focused on pollution control, according to his SJSU biography on the environmental studies department webpage.
He went back to school, eventually earning a Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Cruz in environmental studies.
He has been studying how solar projects impact wildlife and cultural resources for around 17 years now.
“I have always been interested in land-sparing solar development that avoids these impacts,” Mulvaney said.
Katherine Cushing, professor and chair of the environmental studies department, commented on Mulvaney’s role in the department.
“Dr. Mulvaney is a national thought leader on climate and energy justice, as well as the sustainable use of critical minerals,” Cushing said.
Mulvaney teaches classes such as “Sustainable Energy Strategies and Solar Energy Analysis” at SJSU, which has one of the first environmental studies programs in the U.S., founded on the first Earth Day in 1970, according to an SJSU webpage.
“I consider these forms of injustice in the supply chain to be antithetical to aspirations for green energy, because I would hope that green energy would provide clean jobs for all,” Mulvaney said.
The university’s Environmental Resource Center became the activist wing of the Environmental Studies Department and continues to organize the annual SJSU Earth Day celebration, according to the department webpage.
For Rhea Ramesh, a first-year political science student, she first learned about Mulvaney after reading about the California Solar Canal Initiative.
“I ended up looking into more of his work after that because I thought the overall process of his solar panel work sounded pretty interesting,” Ramesh said.
Scientists have been increasingly interested in using solar panels as a strategy to conserve water. Generating electricity with solar panels uses as little as one-two-hundredth the water compared to conventional power plants, according to a report by the International Renewable Energy Agency.
“As a political science major, I don’t always think about solar energy or engineering, but the way he talks about justice and supply chains made it feel a bit more relevant to my own interests, hence why I continued my own additional research,” Ramesh said.
Mulvaney said research is only one part of the job. The other is mentorship.
“I’m proud when I hear that a student I mentored or taught was able to get a job in a closely aligned field,” Mulvaney said. “It means the investment in teaching is paying off.”
In addition to his teaching work, Mulvaney’s interests extend into the natural science world.
“Dustin is also a wildlife and nature photographer who has chronicled the adventures of a rambunctious Southern Pacific sea otter as well as made a fossil find on a Santa Cruz beach,” Cushing said.
As both a researcher and an educator, Mulvaney shares his insight with the community around him.
“Find a topic and dig in. Find the people doing the work. Read a lot. Stay engaged. Every student that does this ends up finding exactly what they want,” Mulvaney said.
