Research

I am an interdisciplinary energy, climate justice, and energy transition scholar. My research is motivated by the threat of climate change and the corresponding need to transition to equitable and just decarbonized energy systems. It coalesces around the following three conceptual themes: (1) energy justice as an alternative pathway for energy decision-making, (2) global climate governance, and (3) barriers to and opportunities for the energy transition. My research is theoretically informed by the energy, climate, and environmental justice theories and the capabilities approach developed by Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum. At the fundamental level, these theories see energy and its use in the social context as a means to develop human functioning and capabilities. Research in the service of resource-constrained communities is one of my core interest areas. My long-term vision is to develop and lead a social science-led interdisciplinary energy transition lab for cold climates, focusing on the Arctic (North America and Europe) and Hindu Kush Himalayan regions. Communities in these regions are vulnerable to climate-induced disruptions and disasters due to their geographical location and are often excluded from the technology and governance decisions that affect them. I aim to understand and work with communities living at the tail end of the energy infrastructure directly affected by climate change. My focus is to conduct research in collaboration with institutions in the global north and south through the existing network and build new partnerships.

Research Projects (Past and Ongoing)

CANSTOREnergy

The CANSTOREnergy team is disrupting the current technology development paradigm by integrating policy and community engagement in the early stages of the design and execution of energy systems. The team aims to re-envision energy systems and storage technologies to address the diverse needs and perspectives of urban and rural communities in Canada, with attention to energy access, control, and governance. We are engaging in conversations with community partners about energy futures and energy justice to inform energy technology development, specifically a suite of carbon conversion technologies. We are engaging with Canada's distinct regions and communities: Hamilton in Southern Ontario and the Yukon territory. Related Links CANSTOREnergy U of T-led collaboration to develop community-tailored clean energy technologies

EAGER: SAI

This study looks specifically at the electric grid and improving it to ensure that the most vulnerable people in the U.S. are not the most likely to be harmed by grid failure. Today, outages are more likely to occur and harm already vulnerable communities. This project looks to provide knowledge so that the electric grid and other built and social infrastructures can be created to have equal disaster response management. This study creates a data-enabled decision-making framework that integrates socioeconomic and engineering factors to understand the outcomes and impacts of potential grid failures. This involves community-level data on power resilience and socioeconomic factors relevant to the region with a history of grid outages. Subsequently, a social-engineering framework is developed to examine and plan potential outages and prepare a disaster response plan. The expected outcome is a comprehensive power infrastructure resilience framework that improves communities by looking at grid failure as a socio-technological issue. Related Links: EAGER:SAI

PUSH-UP

Pumped Underground Storage Hydro
Pumped Underground Storage Hydro in the Upper Peninsula (PUSH-UP) was Keweenaw Energy Transition Lab's (KETL) first research collaboration. I started my association with the kab as a KETL fellow for the PUSH research project. Funded by a generous grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (Grant #G-2018-11305), we assembled a broad team to explore the potential of adapting a derelict mine in Michigan's Upper Peninsula into an energy storage facility. An excellent example of a wicked problem for society, Michigan's UP has copper and iron mining ranges filled with abandoned mines, which present ecological and economic challenges. Several of these mines were very large, giving them enormous energy potential as batteries for the electrical grid. The communities that live with these historic mines have complex relationships with them; they value their symbolic role as heritage monuments, sites of memory, and tourism resources. We study the ways in which PUSH facilities can be designed to reinforce heritage values while also transforming the energy system for communities. Collaborators: Western Upper Peninsula Planning and Development Region Commission (WUPPDR) WPPI Energy City of Negaunee, Michigan Related Links: Keweenaw Energy Transition Lab My research on the PUSH project with the KETL lab informed my dissertation research, for which I was awarded the Dean's Award for Oustanding Scholarship.

Global Environmental Governance

Reserach and Teaching on Global Environmental Sutainbality
My interest and research engagements involve my association with the Youth Environmental Alliance in Higher Education (YEAH) network. Since its inception, I have been involved in research with the alliance, as evidenced by my research paper "Engaging the Youth Environmental Alliance in Higher Education to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals," published in The Scholarly Practice of Undergraduate Research Journal. The research project aims to interlink the science and policy of climate change and teach it to students through collaborative projects across over eleven international institutions. Through the research, we present a new approach to show how interdisciplinary collaborations among institutions provide unique opportunities for students to engage across the science-policy nexus using the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals and through participating at the annual United Nations Climate Change Conference: conference of parties (COP). Over the last five years, I have regularly attended and presented at the Conference of Parties conference (COP). In 2023, I co-led “Just North & Beyond: A Popup University Pavilion,” organized by a consortium of three universities: Michigan Tech, University of Sussex, and UiT-The Arctic University of Norway. I co-led Michigan Tech and organized over 100 sessions in two weeks at COP28 in Dubai, UAE. Related Links: The Youth Environmental Alliance in Higher Education (YEAH) Network
Publications
Peer Reviewed Tiwari, S., Ketola, Z., Schelly, C., & Boyer-Cole, E. (n.d.). Energy Service Security for Public Health Resilience: Perception and Concerns in Western Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Rural Sociology, n/a(n/a). https://doi.org/10.1111/ruso.12571 Ketola, Z., Tiwari, S., & Schelly, C. (2024). How forcing community resilience in rural communities harms sustainable development. Sustainable Earth Reviews, 7(1), 2. https://doi.org/10.1186/s42055-024-00071-0 Tiwari, S., Schelly, C., & Sidortsov, R. (2023). Legacies Matter: Exploring Social Acceptance of Pumped Storage Hydro in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Case Studies in the Environment, 7(1). https://doi.org/10.1525/cse.2023.2004414
Kuang, B., Schelly, C., Ou, G., Sahraei-Ardakani, M., Tiwari, S., & Chen, J. (2023). Data-driven analysis of influential factors on residential energy end-use in the US. Journal of Building Engineering, 106947. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2023.106947
Lee, D., Schelly, C., Gagnon, V. S., Smith, S., & Tiwari, S. (2023). Preferences and perceived barriers to pursuing energy sovereignty and renewable energy: A tribal nations perspective. Energy Research & Social Science, 97, 102967. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2023.102967
Tiwari, S., Schelly, C., Ou, G., Sahraei-Ardakani, M., Chen, J., & Jafarishiadeh, F. (2022). Conceptualizing resilience: An energy services approach. Energy Research & Social Science, 94, 102878. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2022.102878 Tiwari, S. (2022). Texas electricity service crisis through an energy justice lens. The Electricity Journal, 35(9), 107204. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tej.2022.107204 Pearce, J. M., Tiwari, S., Pascaris, A. S., & Schelly, C. (2022). Canadian professors’ views on establishing open source endowed professorships. Cogent Education, 9(1), 2122255. https://doi.org/10.1080/2331186X.2022.2122255 Tiwari, S., Schelly, C., & Sidortsov, R. (2021). Developing a legal framework for energy storage technologies in the US: The case of pumped underground storage hydro. The Electricity Journal, 34(10), 107048. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tej.2021.107048 Whipple, S., Tiwari, S., Osborne, T. C., Bowser, G., Green, S. A., Templer, P. H., & Ho, S. S. (2021). Engaging the Youth Environmental Alliance in Higher Education to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Scholarship and Practice of Undergraduate Research, 5(1). https://par.nsf.gov/biblio/10293208
Book Chapters and Other Publications Tiwari, S., & Schelly, C. (2024) Child malnutrition and energy service access in India. In The Capability Approach and the Sustainable Development Goals (chpt 2, pp. 27-40), ed. Brian Vincent Ikejiaku. Routledge Tiwari, S., Ketola Z., Schelly, C., Cole, Eric B. (2023). Energy Service Security for Public Health Resilience in Michigan’s Western Upper Peninsula. Natural Hazard Center. (peer-reviewed). Tiwari, S., Tarekegne, B., & Schelly, C. (2020). Global electricity development: technological, geographical, and social considerations. In Affordable and Clean Energy (pp. 699-708). Cham: Springer International Publishing. Tiwari, S. (2022). Book review: Navigation by judgment: why and when top-down management of foreign aid doesn’t work: by Dan Honig, New York, NY, Oxford University press, 2018, 263 pp., $41.95 (hardcover), ISBN 9780190672454. The Social Science Journal, 59(1), 169-170, https://doi.org/10.1080/03623319.2020.1848289.
Sidortsov, R., Tiwari, S., Scarlett, T., Dyreson, A., Watkins, D., Schelly, C. (2021). PUSHing for Storage: A Case for Repurposing Decommissioned Mines for Pumped Underground Storage Hydro (PUSH) in the United States, report to SLOAN foundation, https://www.newswise.com/pdf_docs/165998955181542_PUSH_Tech_report_draft_2021_10_01_final.pdf.
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Department of Political Science & School of the Environment, University of Toronto 33 Willcocks St, Toronto, M5S 2J7, Canada
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