Energy Program (ENE)

IIASA’s Energy Program aims to better understand the nature of alternative future energy transitions, their implications for human well-being and the environment and how they might be shaped and directed by current and future decision makers. Given the interactions between energy and almost all economic and social activities, it is essential to better understand the long-term implications of alternative energy policies, investments and technological developments.

The Energy Program’s contribution to addressing the challenges confronting the global energy system consists of the following main areas of research:

• Scenario analysis that holistically analyzes the social, economic, development, technological, environmental, security and other dimensions linked to energy. The aim is to provide the technical and scientific basis needed to address the major energy challenges of tomorrow, related to: access to modern forms of energy, security of supply, local, regional and global environmental impacts, and securing sufficient investment (see for example Global Energy Assessment);
• Developing methods and modeling techniques for exploring alternative energy pathways, with a focus on the “next generation” of technology-rich energy systems and Integrated Assessment models as well as other modeling approaches; and
• Energy investment requirements looking at the development, deployment and financing needs and opportunities associated with a range of energy technologies, systems and infrastructures in a more dynamic context.

YSSP applications should be related to at least one of these fields. More specifically, ENE is looking for YSSP applicants interested in working on the following topics:

• Incorporating salient energy, economic and environmental uncertainties into energy models by means of e.g. stochastic optimization and portfolio management techniques, and assessing their implications for decision making
• Applying Multi-Criteria Analysis (MCA) to energy and emission scenarios to explicitly analyze the trade-offs and synergies between different objectives such climate change mitigation, security of supply and access to modern forms of energy
• Large-scale energy modeling using optimization approaches for the development of technology-detailed, long-term scenarios with a focus on energy transitions in the context of the above mentioned energy challenges
• Exploring the future role of different technology-clusters (e.g. renewables, nuclear power, energy efficiency) for climate change mitigation with the help of Integrated Assessment models and other tools. This includes also the investigating the role of investments in research, development, deployment and diffusion of energy technologies.
• Combining regional expertise on energy and climate change strategies with the global integrated approached researched at IIASA

This list is not meant to be exhaustive and applicants are encouraged to suggest other research topics for the YSSP that fit into the Energy Program’s research agenda. Applicants may contact the YSSP program representative, Oscar van Vliet (vanvliet@iiasa.ac.at) for any scientific related questions.

For more information about the ENE program check the web site.

Responsible for this page: Tanja Huber
Last updated: 22 Sep 2011