Network dynamics of solar PV adoption: Reconsidering flat tax-credits and influencer seeding for inclusive renewable energy access in Albany county, New York

Governments often use price-based policies such as tax-subsidies and rebates to encourage households to shift to renewable energy sources like rooftop solar photovoltaics (PV). These policies, however, have primarily benefited high-income homeowners, leaving others behind. This paper proposes leveraging social networks’ influence on attitudes...

Exploring industrial community energy systems: A missing link in the industrial energy transition?

The transition to renewable energy sources affects all sectors of society, including the industrial sector. Besides climate policy ambitions and other concerns regarding the social and environmental acceptability of energy provision, the transition to renewables may also improve the availability and affordability of energy services. The latter...

A warm welcome or a poor pick? Exploring energy poverty and inequality in the transition to a heat network in Delft

Energy poverty is an increasingly important issue. While vulnerable households are especially at risk in the energy transition, energy poverty effects of the transition are unknown. In Delft, a district heating network based on geothermal energy is planned. The distributive justice aspects of heat networks in the heating transition remain...

Energy Security of Thermal Energy Communities

This thesis aims to support the design and implementation of energy-secure thermal energy communities (TEC) by investigating their technical, behavioural and institutional settings through a collective action perspective. The thesis shows that energy-secure TEC initiatives are collective energy systems with particular characteristics and...

The Future of Nickel in a Transitioning World: Exploratory System Dynamics Modelling and Analysis of the Global Nickel Supply Chain and its Nexus with the Energy System

Acceleration of the energy transition requires increased mining of materials. An important material for the energy transition is nickel, used in the stainless steel required for all energy infrastructure and an important component for both stationary batteries and batteries used in electric vehicles. Previous research has been done on the global...

Simulating thermal energy community formation: Institutional enablers outplaying technological choice

Energy communities are key elements for local energy transitions, collectively generating, distributing and consuming energy, using renewable energy technologies. Thermal energy communities, as one type of energy community, are focused on thermal energy applications, such as heating, cooling, bathing, showering and providing hot tap water. As...

Agent-Based Modelling of EU Energy and Climate Policy: Investment, Uncertainty and Policy Imperfections

We simulate climate and energy policy for the EU using a flexible and modular agent-based modelling approach, we named Energy Modelling Laboratory (EMLab). The agent-based model focuses on investment in power generation and studies long run effects of various interacting European energy policies, and incorporates differences between countries....

An Agent-Based Social Simulation Model of Belief System Change Applied to the Formation of Consumer Attitudes Towards Clean Energy Technologies

The need for an energy transition has arisen in response to a growing discrepancy between (A) what people find important or valuable in life, and (B) the performance of – or value delivered by – the physical energy system. Since the physical energy system has not changed much in recent decades, it is clear that changes in people’s values are...

Jumping to a better world: An agent-based exploration of criticality in low-carbon energy transitions

Understanding the possible transition pathways of the energy system requires the integration of human behaviour in energy system models. In order to model the influence of actor behaviour we have developed ACT (Agent-Based Model of Critical Transitions), an agent-based model inspired by an existing conceptualisation of critical transitions....

Simulating climate and energy policy with agent-based modelling: The Energy Modelling Laboratory (EMLab)

We present an approach to simulate climate and energy policy for the EU, using a flexible and modular agent-based modelling approach and a toolbox, called the Energy Modelling Laboratory (EMLab). The paper shortly reviews core challenges and approaches for modelling climate and energy policy in light of the energy transition. Afterwards, we...