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Identification, exploration and evaluation of policy measures for the Swiss energy transition
The transition to a more energy-efficient economy offers the opportunity to redesign the climate policy framework, requiring new strategies to be defined and implemented by national policymakers. Operational research models and methods have been widely applied to support policy-making in this direction. Decision support methodologies in the field of energy include, among others, multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) approaches (Siskos and Burgherr, 2022, Pohekar and Ramachandran, 2004) and mathematical programming methods, such as multi-objective portfolio optimization models (Forouli et al., 2019). Such approaches have become indispensable when addressing problems related to sustainable energy and sustainable development goals, particularly due to the organisational challenges of energy markets and the conflicts raised between stakeholders (Antunes and Henriques, 2016)
On the other hand, the uncertain economic dynamics of the energy and the financial markets, the geopolitical instability, and the underlying societal risks pose strict challenges to the design of robust energy models (Forouli et al., 2019). Hence, policymakers face a blend of risks of political, economic, regulatory, social, technological, and environmental nature, when designing energy policy strategies.
This Master thesis targets the construction of an exhaustive portfolio of policies and policy-making instruments that can foster the Swiss energy transition, with a special focus on promoting geothermal energy. Furthermore, additional socio-economic, technical, and empirical data will be retrieved and modelled for these policy measures, with a view to performing a small-scale multi-objective evaluation of them and examining what their future contribution to the Swiss status quo can be.
Keywords: energy transition, policy measures, multi-objective optimization
This research project will focus on performing a thorough literature review and survey on alternative energy and climate policy measures and instruments, which can foster and promote the sustainable energy transition of an economy. Special focus will be given to the policies that concern the promotion of geothermal energy and newly-developed advanced geothermal technologies. Furthermore, this investigation will focus on existing policies, which have already been applied to certain global economies (EU Emissions Trading System), even in Switzerland, as well as on others, which have been proposed in the literature but have not been implemented yet.
After the attainment of a portfolio of energy and climate policies, the Master's student will seek ways to quantify them based on certain techno-economic, environmental, and sociopolitical criteria. These criteria will set the foundations for the holistic evaluation of the policies, leading to optimal policy recommendations for the context of Switzerland. The evaluation will result from a small-scale, yet properly designed multi-objective optimization model, which will account for the current national status, certain geographical constraints, as well as the attainment of the energy and climate targets of the country.
CONTEXT
The student will work in the context of the SFOE SWEET SURE and Innosuisse Flagship AEGIS-CH projects on the respective policy tasks. For further information see: https://www.psi.ch/de/ta/projects
OUTCOME
If time permits, a publication analysing a portfolio of energy and climate policies based on the multi-objective optimization model developed.
PREREQUISITES
Familiarity with mathematical optimization, decision support systems, and statistics. Literature review skills and capacity to perform state-of-the-art analyses. Data search and data acquisition skills. Good familiarity with MS Office and, in particular, Excel and Word. Knowledge of R or Python is a plus.
This research project will focus on performing a thorough literature review and survey on alternative energy and climate policy measures and instruments, which can foster and promote the sustainable energy transition of an economy. Special focus will be given to the policies that concern the promotion of geothermal energy and newly-developed advanced geothermal technologies. Furthermore, this investigation will focus on existing policies, which have already been applied to certain global economies (EU Emissions Trading System), even in Switzerland, as well as on others, which have been proposed in the literature but have not been implemented yet. After the attainment of a portfolio of energy and climate policies, the Master's student will seek ways to quantify them based on certain techno-economic, environmental, and sociopolitical criteria. These criteria will set the foundations for the holistic evaluation of the policies, leading to optimal policy recommendations for the context of Switzerland. The evaluation will result from a small-scale, yet properly designed multi-objective optimization model, which will account for the current national status, certain geographical constraints, as well as the attainment of the energy and climate targets of the country.
CONTEXT
The student will work in the context of the SFOE SWEET SURE and Innosuisse Flagship AEGIS-CH projects on the respective policy tasks. For further information see: https://www.psi.ch/de/ta/projects
OUTCOME
If time permits, a publication analysing a portfolio of energy and climate policies based on the multi-objective optimization model developed.
PREREQUISITES
Familiarity with mathematical optimization, decision support systems, and statistics. Literature review skills and capacity to perform state-of-the-art analyses. Data search and data acquisition skills. Good familiarity with MS Office and, in particular, Excel and Word. Knowledge of R or Python is a plus.
Not specified
Please submit your CV and a transcript to Eleftherios Siskos eleftherios.siskos@psi.ch
Please submit your CV and a transcript to Eleftherios Siskos eleftherios.siskos@psi.ch
master_thesis_PSI_policies_SE_BP.pdf
