Description
Back to topThis program will focus on how mathematical modeling can help answer questions regarding the impact of green (low carbon) energy on society and the ways in which financial incentives and regulations and infrastructure changes can enhance outcomes and accelerate the transition to a green electricity system. It will identify the ways in which mathematical tools can inform and shape appropriate public and private investments and decisions and navigate the trade-offs encountered in moving to a more sustainable economy.
The overall program consists of an opening workshop in June that outlines the problems of interest and provides an overview of problems that require the attention of researchers. The closing workshop will provide a forum to report on what has been learned, what are open questions, and what is next. Sandwiched between the opening and closing workshop is an eight-week research program that researchers at all levels are encouraged to apply to; the application to be on site at IMSI for any period outside of the program workshops is at the bottom of this page. The purpose of this program is to produce ideas and research in the green energy space that addresses issues raised in the opening workshop and relevant topics for the architecture of green energy systems in general.
Reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and other national and international scientific advisory bodies are spurring governments to make announcements about net zero commitments. The transition to economies with zero carbon will require substantial investment and deployment of new technologies for providing, transporting, storing and consuming green energy. It will also require institutional changes to manage an orderly and just green energy transition. This transition is happening very slowly due to technical, socio-economic and political constraints. There is also uncertainty and complexity due to the wide range of actors shaping the energy transition and the interdependencies across sectors, infrastructures and countries. Energy providers have been slow to increase renewable energy capacity and infrastructure at the rates required to keep global temperature rise in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement, for a range of reasons including their institutional incentives and the changing policy and international environment. There is also increasing evidence that some of the policies and decisions that have already been made have imposed a greater burden on vulnerable and marginalized parts of society. In short, recent research across a range of disciplines has helped to understand the role and relationships across different institutions, drivers, and systems in failing to deliver the pace of change required in the energy system in a just manner and what can be done to speed it up. However, insufficient attention has been paid to the formal application of mathematics in this setting of complex systems with multiple sources of uncertainty and variability. This program is intended to initiate the development of a core body of research that will aim to provide a systematic framework or set of frameworks for analysing some of these problems. It will bring together leading researchers who have demonstrated an interest and willingness to work at the boundary of different disciplines, but for whom face-to-face encounters are difficult to arrange due to disciplinary diversity and separation.
Applications are being accepted on a rolling basis, with the following deadlines:
- Visits of 10 business days or more: PhD students who are at a US institution and/or are a US citizen or permanent resident: May 1, 2024
- Visits of 9 business days or less are still being accepted as well and you can apply below; contact the organizers directly for further information about the program. The deadline is 3 weeks prior to your anticipated arrival date.