Economics & Society
This profile deals with integrating economic and societal aspects in sustainable energy projects, innovation processes, policies, and transitions. Think of the design of innovative systems in energy and industry, economy of future energy systems, market design, policy issues, technology assessment. In order to increase energy generation from sustainable sources, developing technological innovations is not sufficient. Comprehensive engineering is needed: an approach in which substantial knowledge of natural sciences and engineering is integrated with insights from economics, the humanities, and the social and behavioural sciences.
At TU Delft, we study the development and implementation of innovations such as sustainable energy technologies from a systems perspective in which technology, actors/stakeholders and the institutional context are intertwined. We cover a large variety of research areas such as the analysis and design of infrastructure, analysis of how sustainable energy technologies are implemented in developed and in developing countries, technology-based entrepreneurship and economics.
Master thesis
The following departments offer graduation projects in the Economics & Society profile:
- Values, Technology and Innovation (Technology, Policy & Management)
- Engineering Systems and Services (Technology, Policy & Management)
Examples of graduation projects
- Business case analysis for small wind turbines in the EU
- Sustainable Energy for Small Islands. Aruba’s road to 100%
- Multi-objective optimisation of Integrated Community Energy Systems and assessment of the impact on households
- Scenarios for a Dutch Energy Transition using Backcasting and Modelling
- Wind Energy and directed technological change: A Meta-analysis of Policies Impact on Innovation
- Global Decision-Making For Carbon Capture & Storage.