Technology alone doesn't drive the energy transition. The rules surrounding it do — and understanding that distinction is at the heart of Elizabeth Wilson's work.
A Dartmouth Professor of Environmental Studies and faculty member in the Master of Energy Transition (MET) program, Wilson examines the socio-technical systems of the energy sector with a particular focus on how law and policy shape the adoption of emerging technologies. In recent years, she has centered her work on grid-scale batteries and offshore wind, studying how differing state laws and policies — and a shifting federal agenda — are shaping the integration process and timeline.
"I look at how innovation and new technologies are shifting rules and opportunities in the energy system," Wilson says. "Because law and policy differ by state and region of the U.S., I explore how technologies are being deployed in different areas."
Wilson joined Dartmouth in 2017 as the founding director of the Arthur L. Irving Institute for Energy and Society, serving in that role until 2022. Over her career, she has taught energy and environmental policy for more than 20 years at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.
This past winter term, Wilson taught the Energy Law and Policy (ENTR 160) course in the MET program, offered through the Guarini School of Graduate and Advanced Studies. In her course, Wilson helps students to bring together the interconnected dimensions of energy technology, policy, and social systems to understand energy as a system.
Wilson is a co-author of Energy Law and Policy, Fourth Edition (West Academic Publishing), the textbook used in the course, which uses real-world cases to guide students through the federal and state policies, regulations, and cases shaping energy system regulation.
This is the type of learning that students will carry into professional roles as they address real-world complexity across the energy sector.
"The students are learning to see energy as a system," Wilson says. "Whether they're in industry, policy, consulting, utilities, or public policy, they're encountering regulatory constraints, permitting challenges, and institutional fragmentation, this perspective gives them a broader arc and the ability to navigate very different systems."
Wilson emphasizes that as technical solutions advance, they must align with institutional realities.
"It's imperative to understand who is approving and who is opposing; what laws apply, what tradeoffs are being made, and how they vary by different jurisdiction," she explains. Students explore how these elements vary among different technologies, in different parts of the energy system, and study how they have evolved over time.
"The course is anchored in real cases and real decisions, and in the long history of how the energy system has evolved," Wilson says. "I ground students in the ability to understand the history and why decisions are made — to understand the institutional logics."
Wilson references the common wisdom that if you want to know where you're going, you need to know where you've been. Grounded in a historical foundation and systems-thinking approach, students are better equipped to move energy projects forward and understand the implications of different decision pathways.
Grid-scale batteries are a prime example of how the interplay among technology, law and policy, and markets shape deployment — seeing rapid growth in some states, particularly California and Texas, while lagging in others.
"You have systems like California and Texas — CAISO and ERCOT — that have deployed 15 gigawatts of batteries, with another 18 gigawatts approved," she observes. "Even though many other states have had policies to promote batteries, you just don't see those same levels of deployment."
Wilson points to differences in rule alignment between technology, law, and policy to help understand the gap between those markets and regions like the Northeast. She and colleagues are interviewing regulators, market developers, and battery project developers to better understand their experiences with energy storage across different contexts.
While grid-scale batteries are gaining momentum in select markets, offshore wind tells a different story, particularly along the East Coast. Wilson started researching offshore wind in 2022, and for several years, offshore wind projects in the U.S. were advancing, propelled by state clean energy targets and federal support, even as cost and supply chain pressures mounted.
"East Coast states have ambitious goals for powering with clean energy," Wilson notes. "Offshore wind had the potential to be an essential component of meeting growing energy demands and state climate goals. But full utilization will require coordination across government, industry, and communities that has yet to be seen."
Wilson and Tyler Hansen, Visiting Scholar in Dartmouth's Environmental Studies program and researcher at the Technical University of Denmark, co-authored a paper earlier this year, Institutional learning in the energy transition: The case of offshore wind in the United States, exploring the policies, regulations, practices, and organizational structures that are still needed to fully realize the potential for offshore wind along the East Coast.
Demonstrating how swiftly federal policy can affect deployment of clean energy technology, changes to federal policy over the past year have disrupted new leasing and permitting for offshore wind projects, creating significant uncertainty throughout the industry.
"When more projects are completed and operational, we're going to get a lot more experience with how the technology works and integrates into the grid," Wilson says.
The interconnected dimensions — policy, technology, and social systems — that Wilson highlights in her MET course and pursues in her research will continue to shape how batteries, wind, and other renewable and sustainable technologies are integrated in the years ahead. For MET students, her work grounds them in the practical realities of how projects actually move forward amid constant policy flux and institutional complexity.