Summary
Iain Staffell is a multi-disciplinary scientist holding degrees in Physics, Chemical Engineering and Economics. He is a lecturer in Sustainable Energy at the Centre for Environmental Policy with ten years’ experience in energy R&D.
His research centres on decarbonising electricity systems, ranging from the economics of battery storage and nuclear power to efficient ways of integrating renewables into electricity markets, modelling their impacts plus technical and economic solutions.
Iain is co-developer of the Renewables.ninja, an open web platform that lets you simulate the hourly power output from wind and solar power plants located anywhere in the world.
Teaching & Research
Iain co-convenes the Energy Policy option of the Environmental Technology MSc course, lecturing on energy economics and policy. He also teaches for Imperial College Business School on the MSc in Economics & Strategy for Business, and for the Energy Futures Lab on the MSc in Sustainable Energy Futures.
His research focusses on the technical and economic aspects of low carbon energy. His current research areas include the potential of an interconnected super-grid and smart energy storage systems to reduce the cost and carbon emissions of generating electricity across Europe; the impacts that climate change will have on the business case for renewables; the role of flexible fossil power in balancing decarbonised energy systems; and residential-scale microgeneration for decarbonising the heat sector.
Team
My current PhD students are:
Clara Heuberger -- valuing flexible low carbon electricity from CCS
Daniel Hdidouan -- evaluating the impact of climate change on renewable energy systems
Oliver Schmidt -- quantifying future costs and the carbon mitigation potential of energy storage
Selected Publications
Journal Articles
Boßmann T, Staffell I, 2015, The shape of future electricity demand: Exploring load curves in 2050s Germany and Britain, Energy, Vol:90, ISSN:0360-5442, Pages:1317-1333
Staffell I, Green R, 2016, Is There Still Merit in the Merit Order Stack? The Impact of Dynamic Constraints on Optimal Plant Mix, IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, Vol:31, ISSN:0885-8950, Pages:43-53
Staffell I, Green R, 2014, How does wind farm performance decline with age?, Renewable Energy, Vol:66, ISSN:0960-1481, Pages:775-786
Staffell I, Brett D, Brandon N, et al., 2012, A review of domestic heat pumps, Energy & Environmental Science, Vol:5, ISSN:1754-5692, Pages:9291-9306
Staffell I, Green R, 2013, The cost of domestic fuel cell micro-CHP systems, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, Vol:38, ISSN:0360-3199, Pages:1088-1102
Pollet BG, Staffell I, Shang JL, 2012, Current status of hybrid, battery and fuel cell electric vehicles: From electrochemistry to market prospects, Electrochimica Acta, Vol:84, ISSN:0013-4686, Pages:235-249
Hawkes A, Staffell I, Brett D, et al., 2009, Fuel cells for micro-combined heat and power generation, Energy & Environmental Science, Vol:2, ISSN:1754-5692, Pages:729-744