Faculty/School

Faculty of Science

School of Information Systems

Topic status

We're looking for students to study this topic.

Research centre

Supervisors

Professor Alistair Barros
Position
Head of School, Information Systems
Division / Faculty
Faculty of Science
Dr Kenan Degirmenci
Position
Lecturer in Information Systems
Division / Faculty
Faculty of Science
Professor Kevin Desouza
Position
Professor of Business, Technology and Strategy
Division / Faculty
Faculty of Business & Law

Overview

The challenge to keep global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels has become even greater due to a continued increase in greenhouse gas emissions (IPCC, 2023). One major challenge is the shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy to reduce emissions (Gholami et al., 2016). The share of renewable energy in electricity generation has increased to 28.3%, however, an acceleration of the pace of the transition is required to limit global temperature rise (REN21, 2022).

New energy policies are needed to facilitate the transition and address a key challenge—intermittency—because the major renewable sources for electricity, in particular wind and solar, are subject to the inconsistencies of the weather (Watson et al., 2022). System dynamics is considered a powerful method to provide insights into complex interactions between subsystems and processes in the energy sector, understand the system behaviour, test policies for improvement, and assess impacts over time (Saavedra et al., 2018).

In this project, we explore ways to help organisations and governments develop strategies and policies to address challenges of the energy transition using system dynamics. The project is situated within QUT’s School of Information Systems, where you can expect excellent support and mentoring.

References

  • Gholami, R., Watson, R. T., Hasan, H., Molla, A., Bjørn-Andersen, N. 2016. Information systems solutions for environmental sustainability: How can we do more? Journal of the Association for Information Systems 17(8), pp. 521-536. https://doi.org/10.17705/1jais.00435
  • IPCC. 2023. AR6 synthesis report: Climate change 2023. https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/syr
  • REN21. 2022. Renewables 2022: Global status report. https://www.ren21.net/gsr-2022
  • Saavedra M., M. R., de O. Fontes, C. H., Freires, F. G. M. 2018. Sustainable and renewable energy supply chain: A system dynamics overview. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 82, pp. 247-259. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2017.09.033
  • Watson, R. T., Ketter, W., Recker, J., Seidel, S. 2022. Sustainable energy transition: Intermittency policy based on digital mirror actions. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 23(3), pp. 631-638. https://doi.org/10.17705/1jais.00752

Start date

15 November, 2024

End date

15 February, 2025

Location

QUT Gardens Point Campus, Y Block

Keywords

Contact

Contact the supervisor for more information.