News

New journal article investigates prospects of heat pumps in industry

In his recently published journal article, Michel Obrist investigates the prospects of high temperature heat pumps for the industry sector in view of Switzerland’s long-term decarbonisation ambitions.

The results of the analysis using the Swiss TIMES Energy system Model reveal that high temperature heat pumps are cost-effective up to a temperature of 150°C and that Switzerland has an economic potential to deploy of about 100 MW_th in the pulp and paper industry and about 900 MW_th in the food and beverage industry by 2050. Read more here https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2022.113383

Master thesis opportunity at PSI’s Energy Economics Group

The energy economics group at PSI currently offers a master thesis^[1] in the field of industrial energy efficiency and decarbonization. Your project is part of the current research focusing at long-term energy and emission pathways for the Swiss industry. Therefore, a good understanding of energy technology and a general interest in industrial processes is a prerequisite. The focus of this project is on the technical and economical evaluation of energy efficiency and CO₂ mitigation options for the machine industry, metal industry and secondary steelmaking. During the project, you learn how to develop and apply a techno-economic optimization model.

After an introduction and training session on the topic, your main tasks include:

• Determine state of the art of energy technologies in the machine industry, metal industry and secondary steelmaking,
• Compile an overview of energy efficiency and CO₂ mitigation options in the machine industry as well as current and future recycling paths of steel and metals in Switzerland,
• Co-develop a techno-economic optimization model,
• Through a model-based scenario analysis, assess the technical and economical potential of CO₂ abatement and energy efficiency improvement in the machine industry, metal industry and secondary steelmaking.

General information

• The topic may be adapted to your interests and expertise.
• At the beginning of the project, you will create a project plan.
• PSI offers a workplace for the duration of the project, remote work is partly possible.

If you are interested in a master thesis on this topic or if you have any questions about it, please contact Michel Obrist (michel.obrist@psi.ch).

New Report: Long-Term energy transformation pathways - Integrated scenario analysis with the Swiss TIMES energy systems model

In the context of the SCCER Joint Activity Scenarios and Modelling we published the latest results of our research regarding deep-decarbonisation pathways of the Swiss energy system towards net-zero emissions in 2050. 

The full report in English is available here 

The PSI Media Release can be found in German , in English and in French. 

Key findings of the analysis are also in  NZZ am Sontag edition of 07.03.2021 

New Publication: Decarbonization pathways of the Swiss cement industry towards net zero emissions

We gladly announce that the results of our research on decarbonization pathways of the Swiss cement industry towards net zero emissions have been published in the Journal of Cleaner Production.
This article is part of our research projects SWIDEM and SCCER-JAS&M. For further insights, Michel Obrist (michel.obrist@psi.ch) would be happy to answer your questions.

New group member: Start on new SNF funded project on energy storage 

We cordially welcome our new group member: Ms. Sining Liu! Ms. Liu will work as a PhD student in our new Swiss National Science Fund project “The role of storage in risk-averse electricity market equilibria” http://p3.snf.ch/project-185149.

Semester project / master thesis opportunities at PSI’s Energy Economics Group
The Energy Economics Group at PSI currently offers a semester project or a master thesis in the field of industrial energy efficiency and decarbonization. Your project is part of the current research focusing at long-term energy and emission pathways for the Swiss industry. Therefore, a good understanding of energy technology and a general interest in industrial processes is a prerequisite. Possible focus areas include: Hydrogen in industry, building technology on industrial sites, energy efficiency of recycling processes, integration of industrial sites in district heating networks or high temperature heat solutions for industry. For further information, please contact Michel Obrist (michel.obrist@psi.ch).

Ms. Yi Wan (https://www.psi.ch/en/people/yi-wan) is the winner of the  Student Award 2019 of the Swiss Association of Energy Economics (SAEE) in the category of Best Master Thesis (http://saee.ethz.ch/education/student-award-2019/) with her topic "Impacts of Nonlinear Inverse Price Demand Curves in Electricity Market Modeling".

Congratulations!

Policy Briefs on Research & Innovation (R&I) for decarbonising Europe
The European DEEDS consortium published 7 policy briefs with R&I recommendations and roadmaps for decarbonising Europe. Read now about stimulus packages, systems-based approaches, no-regret options for a resilient future, and more in the policy briefs we have contributed to: Energy, Transport and Cities!

New European Smart City project: ATELIER
On 1st November 2019, the Smart City project ATELIER, funded by the European Commission under the H2020-LC-SC3-2018-2019-2020 call (Grant Agreement n°864374), has officially started. Coordinated by the City of Amsterdam, ATELIER will focus on developing citizen-driven Positive Energy Districts in its two Lighthouse Cities Amsterdam and Bilbao, combining the expertise and the commitment of 30 partners from 11 countries. As leader of the work package “Monitoring and Impact Assessment” and contributor to the work package “City Vision 2050”, PSI will employ Life Cycle Analysis and Energy Modelling scoping on Positive Energy Districts.  

Invitation to an Insights Review from the World Energy Congress (WEC)
The WEC, which is the world's largest and most influential energy event, took place a few weeks ago in Abu Dhabi. Herewith, we cordially invite you to these events in Zurich and Lausanne where the Swiss delegation will present the main findings and developments from the congress to you:

• Presentation at ETH Zurich: 29. Oktober 2019, 17-19h:  Zurich 
• Presentation at EPFL: 6. November 2019, 17-19h: Lausanne

Now online: report on electricity prices and hydropower
The report on the “Long term role of Swiss Hydropower from an Energy Systems and Market Perspective” is now available online and can be accessed here.
This report was written by 4 researchers from our group and was supported by the PSEL research fund of VSE/AES (Association of Electricity Producers of Switzerland).

World Energy Scenarios 2019 published at the World Energy Congress in Abu Dhabi!
PSI in collaboration with the World Energy Council and Accenture have developed the World Energy Scenario 2019. Have a look at the corresponding reports that illustrate the developments of under the three scenarios, named Modern Jazz, Unfinished Symphony and Hard Rock: https://www.worldenergy.org/publications

Open PhD Position
The Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF) approved our research project on “The role of storage in risk-averse electricity market equilibria”.
We are very glad to offer a PhD position on this exciting topic, where we investigate (among other things) how financial commodity futures theory can be applied to energy markets (Link).
For specific questions on the contents of the research project, you can contact also Martin Densing: martin.densing@psi.ch.

Invitation to Workshop on Decarbonising Cities
As member of the DEEDS project, we cordially invite you to our Cities Workshop “Priority actions to achieve zero-carbon cities”, taking place on Tuesday, 8 October 2019 (9:30 – 16:00) at the InnoEnergy Brussels Offices (Rue Guimard 7, 1040 Brussels).
The EU-funded DEEDS-project (DialoguE on European Decarbonisation Strategies) is facilitating a series of multi-stakeholder workshops in 2019, aimed to enrich and embed the recommendations of the final report of the High-Level Panel (HLP) of the European Decarbonisation Pathways Initiative.
The workshop on cities, as part of the DEEDS stakeholder engagement series, will focus on experiences and innovations for moving towards zero-carbon cities. In the context of the European Week of Regions and Cities, we want to explore with you which policies are needed to achieve long-term decarbonisation of European cities – from governance, over citizen engagement to smart and integrated technologies and financing of such a transition. This will be done in collaboration with stakeholders of policy, academia, businesses and civil society.
Please, register until 30 September by filling out this Registration Form. Should you not be able to join, we kindly invite you to share this invitation within your organization.
Workshop participants may benefit from support to cover their Transport and Subsistence costs. The limited budget will be allocated on a First Come-First Serve basis. For information about funding, please contact InnoEnergy (deeds@kic-innoenergy.com).
We look forward to your participation.

New agent-based model for describing factors influencing the diffusion of rooftop solar PV
Our new publication analyses the diffusion of rooftop solar PV for Swiss single-family houses. We find that by 2050, about 2 out of 3 single-family houses will have a solar PV system under the baseline conditions. In the near-term the deployment of the rooftop solar PV is sensitive to the profitability of the investment, while the social network plays an increasing role in the agents’ investment decisions over the mid- and long-term horizon.

Acceleration strategies for the solution time of the TIMES energy systems model generator
This presentation assesses different acceleration strategies, such as the aggregation of the model across different dimensions and the application of parallel high-performance computing, and demonstrates trade-offs between the different strategies. It turns out that the preferable option is the application of advanced solving methods that take advantage of the block structure Jacobian matrices and solve each block in parallel in an HPC environment, while the rest of the assessed techniques can be applied when such an environment is not available at the expense of the solution accuracy. This work is part of BEAM-ME project.

Invitation to Workshop on Decarbonising Transportation
As member of the DEEDS project team, PSI’s Laboratory for Energy Systems Analysis cordially invites you to the workshop on “Research & Innovation for unlocking the decarbonisation of transport”, taking place at the InnoEnergy Brussels Offices (Rue Guimard 7, 1040 Brussels) on Tuesday, 17 September 2019 from 09:30 – 16:15.
The EU-funded DEEDS project (DialoguE on European Decarbonisation Strategies) is facilitating a series of multi-stakeholder workshops during 2019, in order to enrich and embed the recommendations of the final report of the High-Level Panel (HLP) of the European Decarbonisation Pathways Initiative.
The workshop on transport, as part of the DEEDS stakeholder engagement series, will focus on different innovations and solutions needed to achieve the long-term decarbonisation of Europe's transport sector, from transport technologies and system integration to new mobility demand patterns. Additionally, we will discuss the knowledge gaps and the required policies in order to accelerate and scale up the deployment of suitable solutions. This will be done in collaboration with stakeholders of policy, academia, businesses and civil society.
Kindly find the latest agenda, discussion document, the HLP’s report chapter on Transport, as well as the logistical note enclosed. To register, fill in the Registration Form by 3 September and for further questions, please contact Iker Urdangarin (iker.urdangarin@worldfuturecouncil.org).
Workshop participants may benefit from support to cover their Transport and Subsistence costs. The limited budget will be allocated on a First Come-First Serve basis. For information about funding, please contact InnoEnergy (deeds@kic-innoenergy.com).
We are looking forward to your participation.

Flexibility options for the Swiss energy system 
Storage, demand-side management, sector coupling and smart integration of electromobility are key flexibility options for the future Swiss energy system. – see our recent publication on flexibility options for the Swiss energy system here

Analysis of profitability of Swiss stored hydropower
Published as “PowerDesign Project Report” for Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE), this new study examines the effects of market design changes in neighbouring countries on the Swiss electricity market. PSI-EEG contributed to this report by investigating the profitability of Swiss stored hydropower under the price-scenarios provided by Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT).

Internship at PSI’s energy economics group
We offer a 3-month student internship for registered Master degree students from any Swiss or European university.  You are expected to compile information on decarbonisation energy technologies for a data repository.  Therefore, a good understanding of energy technology is a prerequisite for this internship.  If you are interested, please send your CV to tom.kober@psi.ch

Successful Funding for Research Project in Electricity Markets
We received successful funding by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) for our project "The role of storage in risk-averse electricity market equilibria" (duration: 4 years). In this project, we will investigate how energy storage can make energy markets more efficient and how this can make market outcomes closer to social welfare solutions in a risky environment. Moreover, we will explore conditions under which energy storage could have adverse effects, for example through short-sighted trading actions.

New report on future research and innovation paving pathways for deep decarbonisation
The High Level Panel (HLP) of the European Decarbonisation Pathways Initiative published end of October its final report with insights regarding future research and innovation needed for deep decarbonisation in Europe. The project team of the H2020 project DEEDS supported the HLP in its activity, with PSI providing input specifically to the energy supply and transport chapters.

New publication freely available to download
A new publication about the long-term development of the Swiss electricity demands and their load curve pattern has been published in Energy Strategy Reviews by Kannan. The article is freely available to download until 7 Jan 2019.


New support for our group: Karlo Hainsch
We welcome our new intern, Karlo Hainsch, who is a Master student at TU Berlin and joins us for a 6-months internship. Karlo will work with the Global Multi-regional MARKAL (GMM) model, refining the transportation sector. In particular, he will aim for an improved representation of transportation demand and possible future technologies.

Two new PhD-students: Michel Obrist and Sandro Luh
We welcome our two new PhD-students, Michel Obrist and Sandro Luh, who started this October in the Energy Economics Group.

Both will work with the Swiss TIMES Energy systems Model (STEM), aiming to show long-term pathways for reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions in Switzerland. While Michel focusses on an advanced representation of the industrial sector in the model, Sandro’s work relates to the implementation of novel technologies and behavioral aspects in the transport sector of STEM.


LEA team won the 2018 best paper award
Congratulation to Kathrin Volkart, Chris Mutel and Evangelos Panos from Laboratory for Energy Systems Analysis (LEA). They have been confirmed the best paper award in Sustainable Production and Consumption journal for their paper Integrating life cycle assessment and energy system modelling: Methodology and application to the world energy scenarios

The award ceremony was held on 4-5 October 2018 at the International Conference on Sustainable Production and Consumption in Manchester, UK. Stefan Hirschberg, the former head of LEA, was the keynote speaker at the conference and received the prize on behalf of the authors.

As the award winning paper, the article is freely available for download from here


Preparation for the next World Energy Scenarios 2019
In preparation of the launch of the World Energy Scenarios at the World Energy Congress in Abu Dhabi in October 2019 a series of regional stakeholder workshops has been started by the World Energy Council (WEC). PSI’s Energy Economics group is actively involved in WEC’s scenario work and participated at the European workshop in Paris in September. At the workshop, around 35 participants developed three scenario narratives to 2040 and explored how new and emerging ecosystems might disrupt energy values chains in each.

The report on electricity market modeling, titled "Oligopolistic capacity expansion with subsequent market-bidding under transmission constraints (OCESM)", is published. Work was under the competitive EWG-research programme of the Swiss Federal Office of Energy. Final Report.

 

PSI successfully hosted the IEA-ETSAP (Energy Technology Systems Analysis Program) workshop during 11-12 December 2017 at ETHZ. The presentation are available at ETSAP website.

 

PSI is hosting this year’s autumn workshop of IEA-ETSAP (Energy Technology Systems Analysis Program). It will be held during 11-12 December 2017 at ETHZ. Further details in ETSAP website.

 

Kathrin Volkart's PhD thesis, which she successfully defended in March 2017, is now available Download thesis. Congratulations!

Mashael Yazadanie successfully defended her PhD thesis in August 2017. Congratulations!
 

Kathrin Volkart contibuted to the INSIGHT_E Hot Energy Topic on Is domestic action enough? Policies and programs for the EU to reduce greenhouse gas emissions outside of its borders, which is available online.

The INSIGHT_E consortium (Grant Agreement number 612743) is an energy think-tank of the European Commission.
 

Kathrin Volkart and Martin Densing contibuted to the INSIGHT_E policy report on Hydrogen and fuel cells in stationary energy applications, which has recently been published.

The report can be downloaded here.

The INSIGHT_E consortium (Grant Agreement number 612743) is an energy think-tank of the European Commission.
 

Internship available!

3-month student internship in which you learn about various decarbonisation technologies by compiling a data repository. Knowledge about energy technology as well as Swiss residency is required. If you are interested, please send your CV to tom.kober@psi.ch

The World Energy Scenarios 2016 - The Grand Transition have been launched at the World Energy Congress in Istanbul held during 9 - 13 October 2016. The central analytical tool used for the scenario quantification of future transition pathways was based on PSI’s global energy system model (GMM model). The scenarios describe possible future pathways for the development of the global energy economy until 2060 via three core scenarios, viz. Modern Jazz, Unfinished Symphony, and Hard Rock. Great contributions from Evangelos Panos, Tom Kober and Kathrin Volkart are highly acknowledged.

The report can be downloaded here.