Duan Family Faculty Fellow Emily Ryan Helps Launch Clean Energy Tools for Massachusetts
The BU team that helped build two new tools to make it easier for towns to go green (from left): Jonathan Buonocore, Emily Ryan, Cutler Cleveland, Patricia Fabian, and Natalia Escobar-Pemberthy, who is the Clean Energy and Environment Legacy Transition (CELT) Initiative program manager. Photo by Alison Gold
Emily Ryan, Boston University professor of engineering, associate director of the Institute for Global Sustainability, and CDS Duan Family Faculty Fellow, is helping Massachusetts towns and cities make smarter clean energy decisions. Ryan is co-running the Clean Energy and Environment Legacy Transition (CELT) Initiative alongside colleagues Cutler Cleveland and Patricia Fabian, contributing her expertise in scaling clean energy technologies to a $5.7 million partnership between BU, UMass Lowell, and the Healey-Driscoll administration.
The CELT Initiative has produced two powerful online data tools designed to transform how municipalities approach energy planning. The first—an interactive mapping platform called the CELT Energy Transition Atlas—went live last year and has already been visited more than 7,000 times. The second, the Massachusetts Energy Explorer, launched this month to help officials track broader energy trends and identify communities that need additional resources. Ryan emphasizes that the clean energy transition can directly benefit Massachusetts residents through lower energy bills, new job creation, reduced grid strain, and improved air quality, particularly when implemented equitably across all communities.
Beyond the tools themselves, Ryan highlights the vital role students play in advancing Massachusetts' clean energy future. Through CELT's paid fellowship programs, 37 students from across the state are supporting hands-on clean energy work in over 200 municipalities and state agencies, learning firsthand how to drive the transition forward. "Students are the engine of this effort," Ryan notes. "Now, they have an unparalleled window into the state's clean energy future, learning how to drive it forward."