We are about to start a 3-year grant funded by the Qatar National Research Fund on modeling the adoption of residential solar photovoltaic systems in collaboration with the King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center in Riyadh. The project will develop a decision-support software platform to test policy scenarios aimed at promoting the adoption of residential solar energy systems in Qatar and Saudi Arabia. We are looking for an expert on agent-based modeling with background in economics and energy systems.

This is a 3-year, full time, renewable, position based in Doha, Qatar. The successful candidate will be responsible for building the ABM model and participating in related tasks such as the development of a PV adoption ontology, the collection and analysis of relevant data, and the development of a decision support software platform based on the ABM model. Here is the proposal summary:

The integration of any significant amounts of renewable energy into the power grid of GCC countries will generate interconnected changes with deep and long-lasting effects on the GCC economy and society, including increasing the amount of energy available for export. Designing the right policies to promote and regulate renewable energy is crucial in ensuring that the ensuing changes will have positive societal and economic outcomes. This project will develop a social simulation approach that supports the investigation of alternative regulatory frameworks to establish the optimal combination of incentives and regulations for the integration of solar renewable energy in Qatar’s and Saudi Arabia’s power grids. The project team will build a model based on complex-system simulation techniques that uses knowledge about the energy market and society in Qatar and Saudi Arabia to predict solar energy penetration and its implications for socioeconomic changes under diverse policy assumptions. This model will provide a decision support platform to help understand the impact of policy on the adoption and diffusion of solar photovoltaic technologies in Qatar and Saudi Arabia that can be extended to other countries in the GCC and worldwide.

Dr. Antonio Sanfilippo
Research Director
Qatar Environment & Energy Research Institute
HBKU, Qatar Foundation
D +974 4454 7157
M +974 3031 0849
asanfilippo@qf.org.qa