Archive
2024/11/19 – Field Research on the Future of Mobility in Africa
Inga Nienkerke recently met with various stakeholders and collaborators in Ghana and Namibia to explore key factors shaping the future of mobility and renewable energy in Africa. She discussed our preliminary research findings with representatives from science, industry, and politics, as well as with local communities and gained valuable insights into innovative concepts, barriers and enablers of e-mobility.
2024/02/22 – CP member Vira Porieva successfully defended her PhD
Vira defended her dissertation, titled "Non-governmental activities in the process of forming and implementing EU environmental policy: experience for Ukraine", on which she worked in the period of 2019-2023. The dissertation was defended online. Specialized academic council of the Taras Shevchenko Kyiv National University, which was founded in 1834, awarded Porieva Vira as Doctor of Philosophy in Public Policy and Administration. We congratulate Vira!
2024/01/08 – publication study with CP lab co-author Susanne Hanger-Kopp
How can climate policy be made more just and fair? IIASA researchers have synthesized different dimensions of justice into a framework that can be used by climate scientists and policymakers, explaining how previous research has neglected many potential justice positions and how these can be implemented in policy contexts. external page Read more…
2023/09/27 – New study with co-authors from CP lab
The study shows the economic viability of establishing an energetically self-sustained, industrial-scale thermochemical redox cycle fuel production system in regions characterized by high direct normal radiation. This innovative system operates around the clock using only air and sunlight, and its feasibility is made possible by resourcefully incorporating thermal energy storage and waste heat recovery at various levels within the plant.
For more information read the ETH outreach news.
2023/08/03 – New doctoral students at the CP lab
Adrien and Kristiina have joined the CP Lab as PhD students this summer. Kristiina will be working on social acceptance of decarbonisation policies in the energy sector within the Speed2Zero project that focusses on policies and technologies which help Switzerland reach net-zero by 2050. Decarbonisation policies include financial instruments, such as taxes or tax exemptions, as well as regulatory or supporting policies, like an obligation to produce a certain proportion of electricity from renewable sources. Kristiina has a background in natural sciences and has previously worked on climate policy in the civil service.
Adrien will be working on assessing sector-coupling and flexibility policies as part of the PATHFNDR project, which aims at developing transition pathways for renewable energy integration in Switzerland. For example, vehicle-to-grid, targeted incentives and electricity tariff schemes may enhance the demand-side flexibility potential of electric vehicles, buildings and industrial sites by shifting their electricity consumption in time. Adrien will focus on the effect of such policies at the macro-system level, with a view to their environmental and economic impacts. He previously studied energy systems science at ETH.
2023/05/05 – CP member Tim Tröndle on German television
In the programme "Planet Wissen" of the Südwestrundfunk (SWR), Tim commented on the topic external page "Germany and self-sufficiency" (from min 29:42).
2020/04/19 – Jan Wohland is awarded the Köppen Prize
The Wladimir Köppen Award is awarded by Universität Hamburg’s Cluster of Excellence "Climate, Climatic Change, and Society" (CLICCS). Awarded for the tenth time in 2019, its purpose is to recognize outstanding dissertations written by young researchers. external page More information
2019/11/24 – Article in The Washington Post
Christie Aschwanden wrote her story about severe weather alerts with the help of CP member Philippe Weyrich. You can read the story on the external page Washington Post's web site.
2017/07/17 – Article in Nature Climate Change
Grams, C. M., Beerli, R., Pfenninger, S., Staffell, I., & Wernli, H. (2017). Balancing Europe’s renewable electricity through spatial deployment informed by weather regimes. Nature Climate Change. external page doi:10.1038/nclimate3338
Reports about this article in other media:
2017/05/22 – Johan Lilliestam appointed Assistant Professor
2017/02/21 – Nature column by CP member Stefan Pfenninger
Energy scientists must show their workings
Public trust demands greater openness from those whose research is used to set policy.
2016/09/12 – Simulating PV and wind power plants with Renewables.ninja
CP member Stefan Pfenninger in collaboration with Iain Staffell at Imperial College London has created an online application for other researchers to run hourly simulations of PV and wind power production worldwide. The two papers describing the PV and wind simulation methods were just published:
- Stefan Pfenninger and Iain Staffell (2016). Long-term patterns of European PV output using 30 years of validated hourly reanalysis and satellite data. Energy 114, pp. 1251-1265. doi: external page 10.1016/j.energy.2016.08.060
- Iain Staffell and Stefan Pfenninger (2016). Using Bias-Corrected Reanalysis to Simulate Current and Future Wind Power Output. Energy 114, pp. 1224-1239. doi: external page 10.1016/j.energy.2016.08.068
ETH and Imperial College have written news stories (ETH story, external page Imperial College story) and these have been picked up by various other sources including external page Popular Mechanics, external page Esquire, external page Blick, and others.
31.08.2016 – ERC grant for Johan Lilliestam
CP member Johan Lilliestam was awarded a grant from the European Research Council for work on policy interactions with the transition to a renewable power system in Europe. The project will start during 2017.
24.08.2016 – Anna Scolobig interviewed about the earthquake in central Italy
Devastating earthquake in Amatrice, central Italy, on 24 August 2016
A magnitude 6.2 earthquake struck Amatrice and nearby villages, central Italy at 3.36am local time on wednesday 24th August. At the time of publishing, 250 people have been killed and the search and rescue operation is ongoing. The epicentral region is made up of many small villages, and is a popular holiday destination. Roads are small and the region is very mountainous, which hindered recovery efforts in the past days.
Interviews with CP staff have been quoted in Austrian, Spanish, Canadian and Estonian newspapers.
Articles available on-line
2016/07/12 – CP Master Student's report in ETH life
ETH student Joshu Jullier completed his master thesis at CP about the acceptance of transmission lines in Switzerland.
2016/06/13 – Report on the Desertection Project in EU Journal
Entitled "Desertection – Opportunities and challenges of concentrating solar power for Europe" The Parliament reports on research results of our group.
2015/12/30 – Anthony Patt interviewed by BBC
2015/12/06 – "SonntagsZeitung" interview with Anthony Patt about Paris 2015
2015/11/29 – Anthony Patt writes for "SonntagsZeitung"
Read his article (in German) about Download effects of climate change on working climate (PDF, 401 KB)
2015/11/03 – New "ETH Zukunftsblog"
Anthony Patt, Will the Paris agreement matter for climate change?
2015/10/30 – Anthony Patt writes for Tages-Anzeiger
Viel heisse Luft (TA, 2015-10-30, p. 15, in German). external page Search for "Viel heisse Luft" and "Patt".
2015/10/13-16 – CP members at SolarPACES Conference
Anthony Patt and Johan Lilliestam are going to the external page SolarPACES conference in Cape Town. On Wednesday Anthony Patt will talk about "The cost-reliability frontier" of CSP and on Thursday Johan Lilliestam will talk about "Concentrating solar power for the large cities in sub-Saharan Africa".
2015/07/29 – CP Group Members' Journal Article Awarded as Editors’ Choice Article
The paper "Towards people-centred approaches for effective disaster risk management: Balancing rhetoric with reality" by Anna Scolobig, Anthony Patt, Dagmar Schröter, Jonas Jörin, and Tim Prior was selected for the hand-picked choice of authors’ research and scientific articles from external page International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction.
2015/04/17 – Press Conference with CP member Mercè Labordena
At the General Assembly of the external page European Geosciences Union in Vienna, Mercè informed about clean energy production in deserts. This news has has been published in countries such as Spain, Brazil, Argentina and Chile (external page see efeverde website).
2015/02/19 – New "ETH Zukunftsblog"
Oscar van Vliet, The grey energy in smartphones and sausages
2015/02/03 – Tages-Anzeiger's Politblog with Anthony Patt
Read the full article (in German) on the external page Tages-Anzeiger's web site.
2014/12/02 – International Conference on Renewable Energy Development & Applications for a Sustainable Agriculture
ETH in cooperation with IIASA are co-organising a conference in Tunisia under patronage of the President of the Tunisian Government, Mehdi Jomaa.
2014/11/13 – Water Symposium in Schiltach/Schwarzwald Germany
Natural Resource Policy group member Eva Lieberherr will moderate the 7th Hansgrohe Water Symposium titled external page "Water Technology of the Future".
external page Report (in German) in the "Schwarzwälder Bote" (2014/11/14).
2014/09/22 – Conference "Technik und Protest" at TU Berlin
CP member Johan Lilliestam has a talk at the "Konflikte um Technik: Energiewende und Partizipation" panel. More informationen (in German) about the conference can be found external page here.
2014/7/2 – Expert Workshop on “Sharing Best Practices to Protect Electricity Networks from Natural Disasters”
CP members Nadejda Komendantova and Oscar van Vliet attended the external page OSCE expert workshop in Vienna. For more information see OSCE's Download background paper (PDF, 75 KB) .
2014/6/23 – IIASA study shows greater potential for solar power
CP members Tony Patt and Stefan Pfenninger are co-authors of a paper just published in Nature Climate Change.
More information
- external page Nature Climate Change
- ETH News
- external page Imperial College London
- external page IIASA
Media reports
This article has got a high external page news coverage
2014/11/10 – Presentation at the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment
Natural Resource Policy group member Guillaume de Buren will present the results of the external page Alpeau Interreg research project at the external page Swiss Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN), Forest Division.
2014/10/29 – Workshop “Enhanced participation in the reinforcement of electricity grid"
CP members Leonhard Spaeth and Anna Scolobig discussed about “Participatory practices in power line planning processes” at the external page INSPIRE-Grid project stakeholder workshop and general assembly.
2014/10/08 – European Consultation Workshop in Paris
CP member Johan Lilliestam has a talk (Potential and perspectives of renewable electricity imports in a post-2020 policy framework) at the "Bringing Europe and third countries closer together through renewable energies" workshop. More informationen about the workshop can be found external page here.
2014/6/12 – Solar Power out of the Desert
Read online interview with Johan Lilliestam on external page Forskning & Framsteg (in Swedish)
2014/06/10 – New "ETH Klimablog"
Mercè Labordena, Adapting the electricity grid to climate change
2014/05/15 – New "ETH Klimablog"
Johan Lilliestam, How resilient is renewable electricity generation?
2014/04/14 – New "ETH Klimablog"
Anthony Patt, Greasing the wheels of change
2014/04/03 – New "ETH Klimablog"
Anthony Patt, A new paradigm for climate adaptation
2014/3/11 – Short interview with Tony Patt on ETH web site
For full article see ETH News
2014/02/13 – New "ETH Klimablog"
Johan Lilliestam, 50 shades of green: what determines our electricity future?
2014/1/31 – The Guardian reports a paper by Patt & Weber
Corner, A. (2014). The communication of uncertainty is hindering climate change action. For full article see external page theGuardian
2013/10/31 – New "ETH Klimablog"
Anthony Patt, The sense of sustainability
2013/10/01 – New "ETH Klimablog"
Anthony Patt, Was bedeutet der IPCC-Bericht für die Klimapolitik?