News and Events

Dr Stefan Thor Smith has been interviewed for an article, ‘How to build the heatwave-proof houses of the future’ published by The Sunday Times.

Stefan Smith was interviewed by BBC Radio Berkshire regarding the recent heatwave –  and is quoted in article ‘Are we overheating construction’, published by Building Specifier.

A 2-day online workshop with additional 1-day pre-workshop ‘training camp’

15^th and 16^th September 2022 (optional pre-workshop training camp on 14^th September)

0600-1000 Denver, 1300-1700 London, 1400-1800 Berlin, 2200-0200 Sydney

Workshop webpage: https://research.reading.ac.uk/met-energy/next-generation-challenges-workshop/next-generation-energy-climate-modelling-2022/

Registration link (deadline Friday 2^nd September)

Climate risk in energy systems can take many forms. From weather hazards and system resilience, through stress-events impacting the security of supply (e.g., “dunkelflaute”), to the need for climate-robust capacity expansion planning against a uncertain future, the need for a deeper understanding of climate uncertainty is both profound and urgent.

Since 2020, the NextGenEC initiative has drawn together researchers from across the energy- and climate- sciences with the aim of highlighting the state-of-the-art, identifying scientific opportunities, and fostering interdisciplinary collaboration and exchange. You can find out about previous editions here, including a report from our first workshop , a recent perspective article in Joule on “Overcoming the disconnect between energy system and climate modelling”, and details and videos of our recent webinar series here.

The 2022 edition of the NextGenEC workshop will focus on 4 overlapping themes:

• Modelling weather-driven infrastructure damage in current and future energy systems
• Planning for black and green swans: storylines for managing rapid transformations in climate & energy
• Forecasting and predictability: planning and managing variable renewables
• Energy models for all: open access to knowledge & tools for energy and climate modelling

Participants are invited to present their own research and engage in working group discussions either addressing the four main themes (or via a 5th ‘open’ theme for new and emerging topics).

New for 2022 and in response to participant feedback, the NextGenEC organising committee is also pleased to announce an optional ‘training camp’ running the day before the main workshop.  The training camp provides an opportunity to get a crash course in the fundamentals of energy-climate science and includes hands-on activities to get you started working with climate data in energy models.  Please note that spaces on the training camp are limited to enable a highly interactive and practical focus – early registration is recommended.

• Registration link (for both the workshop and training camp)

If you require further information, please contact d.j.brayshaw@reading.ac.uk.

The UCL Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction is looking for a Part-Time Research Assistant in Data-savvy Talent in Project Management to support a project funded by the Project Management Institute (PMI). This post will be for 18.25 hours per week, based on campus, and will be for 12 months from 1st March 2022 to 28th February 2023.

Applicants should hold a good Bachelor’s degree (minimum of 2:1) and an MSc or MBA in a management subject, and should have excellent skills – verbal communication, IT, project management and administration.

Please visit the advertisement with details on how to apply: https://portal.unitemps.com/Search/JobDetails/25229711

Principal Investigator, Dr Eleni Papadonikolaki, is happy to have an informal discussion about the post and can be contacted at e.papadonikolaki@ucl.ac.uk. Interested applicants who are studying towards their PhD are encouraged to have permission from their PhD supervisor before applying.

A paper by Dr Yunusov and Prof Torriti on the distributional effects of time-of-use electricity tariffs is mentioned by the Daily Mail, Mail+, (and in print).

Assuming no behavioural change, the paper imposes time-of-use electricity tariffs  tariffs on UK half hourly smart meter data and the synthetic demand profiles for different household composition generated using the 2014–2015 UK Time Use Survey data and optimisation of energy consumption per activity against the smart meter data.

The paper clarifies that the overall benefits of time-of-use electricity tariffs will be significant, especially in light of the expansion of electric vehicles and heat pumps.

Original paper:

Yunusov, T. and Torriti, J.  (2021) Distributional effects of Time of Use tariffs based on electricity demand and time use. Energy Policy , 156 ISSN: 0301-4215 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2021.112412

In a short blog, during Big Energy Saving Week, Professor Jacopo Torriti, University of Reading tells us how time-of-use tariffs could help meet peak energy demand and make reaching net zero more straightforward and affordable.

 The full article can be found here.

Energy Sources, Part B: Economics, Planning and Policy serves as a forum for the reporting and investigation of economic and political trends and issues relating to the use of both fossil and alternate fuel sources.

In 2020, Energy Sources, Part B: Economics, Planning and Policy had a 3.205 Impact Factor and 49K downloads.

Jacopo is joined by Haris Doukas an Associate Professor of energy policy and management at the National Technical University of Athens, Greece.

Read the full announcement here

International Conference on Sustainable Development in the Building and Environment (SuDBE) is an International Academic Conference in the field of the Built Environment. It was founded by Chongqing University and has been held for 10 consecutive sessions, including the University of Reading and the University of Cambridge. Topics include low-carbon green buildings; green civil structures and underground engineering; healthy and comfortable indoor environment; low-carbon construction; low-carbon energy systems; smart operation and maintenance; urban sustainability and low-carbon ecological development.

The 10th International Conference on Sustainable Development in Architecture and Environment (SuDBE2021) was held in Chongqing on December 10^th to 12^th, 2021. The theme of the conference was “Green Building Helps Emission Peak and Carbon Neutrality”, aiming to help the country’s “dual carbon” strategy and practice green and low-carbon development.

A total of 21 Conference Keynote Reports and 7 Thematic Forums were set up in this Conference. 150 experts from 9 countries and regions including China, the United Kingdom, Norway, Germany, Finland, and Sweden were invited to make academic reports.

At the same time, the Conference also set up two sub-forums of Student Speech Contest. The themes of the two sub-forums were green building and energy saving as well as indoor environment and thermal comfort. 56 students from more than 20 universities, including University of Reading, Tsinghua University, Chongqing University, Southeast University and Tianjin University gave wonderful academic reports on their personal research. The students actively expressed their academic views and shared their academic ideas.

According to the scores of on-site experts, each of these two thematic forums finally selected 1 first prize, 2 second prizes and 5 third prizes of the Best Academic Report Award.

Wenbo Wang won second prize in sub-forum speech competition by presenting his research. He aims to develop a robust and fast microclimate modelling approach that can be used to predict detailed spatial distributions of flow, temperatures, and scalar fields inside complex urban areas at district scale.

In his research, a simulation method adopting a zonal nodal airflow network model for urban microclimate predictions was proposed to support a range of urban planning options in quickly at district scales. The zonal model provides relevant information on climatic variables for strategic decision makings process at the early stages of building design and development. The outside space surrounding buildings is divided into finite number of air zones that exchange mass and energy through interface separating them. Additionally, Satellite image recognition and data processing based on raster data format are introduced to quickly build or modify information models of buildings and the surrounding environment used
for simulation.

The purpose of this role is to support the Investigators in undertaking the EPSRC funded Sustainable Heavy Duty Truck, Marine and Rail Transport (SMaRT) project, namely through conducting agent-based modelling of the spatial and temporal power network loading from delivering electricity derived transport ‘fuel’.

Applications should be submitted by 02/02/2022.

For further details, please see link University of Reading | Jobs | Search here for your perfect career

 

Professor Jacopo Torriti was interviewed about soaring energy prices which has now been published in the latest article published by inews.

To read the full article please click this link – ‘There’s been nothing like this’: Soaring energy prices in 2021 sent suppliers bust and hiked customers’ bills (inews.co.uk)

An exciting opportunity to join a project at the forefront of research into Energy Demand Flexibility has become available. We are looking for a post-doctoral research fellow to join our research team for a 1 year post, looking at data on electricity demand and Time of Use tariffs.

This is a 1 year, full-time, Post-Doctoral Research Fellow (PDRF) on Flexibility in Energy Demand. The post is funded under the Flexibility Theme of the Centre for Research into Energy Demand Solutions (CREDS). CREDS is a UKRI Energy Programme funded initiative with a budget of £19.5 million involving 13 universities, with a core team based at the University of Oxford. The post is based at the School of the Built Environment, University of Reading. The candidate will benefit from being part of a wider research community both within the Energy and Environmental Engineering Research Group at the University of Reading as well as part of the CREDS community.

For more information about this post and how to apply, please click this link –  https://jobs.reading.ac.uk/displayjob.aspx?jobid=8874