Research
Research
OUR MISSION
To contribute to the development of a cost-effective and beneficial energy future for all in the United States and abroad through research, education and community engagement.
Focus
Our research focuses on the intersection of environmental and energy policy, economics, technology and society. By combining engineering, data science and social science methods, we aspire to develop interdisciplinary scientific tools to effectively guide energy, environmental and technology policy towards a reliable, cost-effective and beneficial energy future for all.
Research Themes
Theme 1: Viable and beneficial energy innovations
Our objectives within this theme include: i) Deciphering the social, economic and environmental effects of energy innovation policies with a particular focus on working class households and communities, and ii) identifying optimal policy designs for accelerating innovation while securing energy system affordability and reliability.
Theme 2: Energy behaviors and technology adoption
With this theme, we aim to understand how individual and collective behaviors concerning investment in new technology and demand side management are shaped within specific policy and technology contexts. Furthermore, we explore public acceptance of energy innovations, and designs for behavioral change interventions based on information, peer influence and incentives.
Theme 3: Interdisciplinary modeling of socio-technical energy systems
While the previous two themes focus on understanding the behavioral, economic and environmental aspects of energy innovation policies, this third theme concerns innovative methods to integrate these findings into quantitative models of socio-technical energy systems. The target is to develop interdisciplinary policy-informing models that go beyond the state-of-the-art and take into account consumer behavior heterogeneity in energy-relevant contexts. This will enable more realistic projections of energy innovations' viability, pace, and effectiveness.
