In her doctoral studies in Germany, Martha is working on the realization of a socially just and accepted energy transition. For this, she plans to add social and ecological aspects to the current technical and economical focus within energy transition planning processes. The development of an integrated energy system model will assess the impact of energy market reforms on community and household level as well as their implications for distributive justice. Her interests, broadly, encompass, energy justice, the energy transition, energy modeling, and Open Source methods and strategies.
Her work is supervised by Prof. Dr. Pao-Yu Oei from the Department of Energy and Environmental Management at Europa-Universität Flensburg (EUF).
Martha wrote her masters degree thesis at the TU Berlin in the research group Off-Grid Systems at the Reiner Lemoine Institut and developed the simulation tool Offgridders, which sizes electrification options. Following this, from 2019 to 2021, she worked as a researcher at the Reiner Lemoine Institut and was responsible for the project management within the scope of the H2020 research project E‑LAND, in which RLI develops and applies a simulation tool for sector coupled energy systems (Multi-Vector Simulator).
Martha’s fellowship is financed through the C‑BEAR+ project (link: https://reiner-lemoine-institut.de/en/c‑bear/) , funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action of Germany.
She will be a visiting scholar at RAEL for Spring 2023
Contact: martha.hoffmann@rl-stiftung.de
Guangyu joins us for a year from North China Electric Power University, where he has already worked on clean energy markets and wind energy forecasting.
At RAEL (and LBL) he will be working on aggressive decarbonization pathways for China, and the expansion of clean energy services in heavy industry.
His recent paper on day-ahead wind forecasting is available on the RAEL publications pages. To take a look, click here.
Send him note and welcome & get to know Guangyu!
Jess Carney is interested in understanding how sustainable energy integration impacts power grids and electricity markets. She received her undergraduate degree at Johns Hopkins University in 2018, where she majored in Environmental Science and minored in Applied Mathematics and Statistics. She has held internships at the Independent System Operator or New England (ISO-NE), studying environmental policy and its effect on carbon emissions and energy prices, and at the Vermont Electric Power Company (VELCO), analyzing the impact of high renewable penetration on system stability and integrating state renewable goals into transmission planning procedures.
She has wide-ranging interests that include renewable energy integration, grid stability, energy access, and energy literacy and education.
A recent graduate of Northeastern University with a B.S. in Industrial Engineering with minor in Law & Public Policy.
I intend to research the intersection of renewable energy technology, education, and specifically prison education programs focused on STEM. Ultimately, my goal is to work with formally incarcerated citizens as they prepare for re-entry into society. I aspire to work with renewable energy projects in Africa to fulfill my goal as developing into a World Class “Energy” Engineer.
Hao is a postdoctoral researcher in RAEL as well as in the Department of Earth System Science at Tsinghua University. She holds a double-degree Ph.D. from Beijing Normal University and Aalborg University, specializing in environmental economics and environmental planning respectively. Hao’s research applies interdisciplinary methods to analyze the pollution sources, health impacts and external cost of air pollution in China.
Hao is deeply interested in environmental policies and their effectiveness at balancing economic growth with environmental sustainability. She is currently collaborating with Professor Zhang Qiang, Professor Liu Zhu and Professor Daniel Kammen. Her postdoctoral research investigates energy consumption in developing countries and its impacts on CO2 emissions and human health.
She is lead researcher in the UC Berkeley-Tsinghua U‑Duke University partnership on the health impacts of decarbonization of the power sector in China, California, and elsewhere.
For her publications: click here.
Current position:
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of British Columbia
Sergio Castellanos is a Berkeley Energy & Climate Institute – Tecnológico de Monterrey (BECI–ITESM) Energy Fellow working at the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Lab with Prof. Dan Kammen. His research focuses on expanding an optimization model –SWITCH– to Mexico to determine the optimal investments in new generation and transmission assets. Through his research, he also analyzes the manufacturing capacity of photovoltaic solar technologies in Mexico. Previously, in his Ph.D. studies (Mechanical Engineering ’15, MIT) he characterized the electrical impact of structural defects in silicon-based solar cells. He enjoys reading, exploring new hobbies, and learning more about the intersection of technology, business, and policy in renewable energy.
Current position:
Assistant Professor of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, University of Texas, Austin
RAEL has partnered with both the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and a number of other groups worldwide that are engaging the Vatican and interested partners to utilize the dialog around The Encyclical to promote equity, sustainable development and climate protection.
Events in this initiative include:
RAEL and Vatican publications such as:
November 2, 2016 roundtable:
Actualizing the Vision of Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home
Kammen, D. M., Alstone, P. and Gershenson, D. (2014) “Energy for sustainable and equitable development,” Sustainable Humanity, Sustainable Nature: Our Responsibility, Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Extra Series 41, Vatican City 2014 Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, Acta 20, Vatican City 2014
Videos:
Climate Change, Consumerism, and the Pope
Samuel Carrara holds a Master Degree cum laude in Mechanical Engineering (Major: Energy and Mechanical Plants) and a PhD in Energy and Environmental Technologies, both from the University of Bergamo.
After working as an engineer in the gas turbine field, he is now junior researcher at FEEM. His main research interests include renewable energies, sustainable development, energy policies, climate and energy economics, advanced energy systems.
We explore the operations, balancing requirements, and costs of the Western Electricity Coordinating Council power system under a stringent greenhouse gas emission reduction target. We include sensitivities for technology costs and availability, fuel prices and emissions, and demand profile. Meeting an emissions target of 85% below 1990 levels is feasible across a range of assumptions, but the cost of achieving the goal and the technology mix are uncertain. Deployment of solar photovoltaics is the main driver of storage deployment: the diurnal periodicity of solar energy availability results in opportunities for daily arbitrage that storage technologies with several hours of duration are well suited to provide. Wind output exhibits seasonal variations and requires storage with a large energy subcomponent to avoid curtailment. The combination of low-cost solar technology and advanced battery technology can provide substantial savings through 2050, greatly mitigating the cost of climate change mitigation. Policy goals for storage deployment should be based on the function storage will play on the grid and therefore incorporate both the power rating and duration of the storage system. These goals should be set as part of overall portfolio development, as system flexibility needs will vary with the grid mix.
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