Contact Dr Pegah Mirzania
- Tel: +44 (0) 1234 758566
- Email: P.Mirzania@cranfield.ac.uk
- ORCID
- ResearchGate
Background
Pegah is an Academic fellow in Local Energy Systems at the Center for
Energy Systems and Strategy. She is the Module leader of the Energy Economics and Policy Module for the MSc in Renewable Energy Course. Pegah obtained her PhD at the Centre
for Efficient and Renewable Energy in Buildings (CEREB), London South Bank
University in 2019 where she researched distributed energy systems, in
particular, Community-owned solar projects in the UK. The primary aim of
her research was to evaluate how the integration of solar PV and electricity
storage can be structured to be a feasible and financially viable model for
community-owned solar projects in the post-subsidy condition. Pegah
received her Master's degree in Energy and Economics from the City University
of London, where she worked on energy performance policy frameworks
to improve and promote energy efficiency in community and public
buildings. In February 2019, Pegah has joined Cranfield
University as a Postdoctoral research fellow. Her main research focus was
on analysing the sustainability and livelihood impacts of Concentrated Solar
Power plants on local communities by drawing insights from theoretical concepts
on the socio-technical evolution of energy systems, and the territorial nature of
energy networks.
Research opportunities
I am interested in supervising / co-supervising research (PhD) students with a research interest in:
Smart local energy system
Community renewable energy
Demand-side management
Decentralised energy system
Multi vector energy systems
Green Hydrogen Economy
Current activities
Pegah's overall research interests focus on developing ways to achieve a sustainable, fair and clean socio-technical energy system. She is particularly interested in developing innovative business and techno-economic models for local energy systems and investigating how communities fit in and function in processes linked to scaling up renewables.
Active Projects:
Protecting Minority Ethnic Communities Online (PRIME) 2022-2025: EPSRC funded project
Transition to low emission airport infrastructure from an energy systems perspective (TRILEMA) (2022): working on this project which is funded by HEIF as a Co-I researcher, the overall aim of the project is to create knowledge exchange activities between the energy and aviation sectors.
Completed Projects:
LOCESA- Department for Transport and Connect Places Catapult (2021-2022)- Low Carbon Energy Demand Scenarios For Aviation
Network H2, UK Research and Innovation - Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Councils (2021-2021) Techno-economic feasibility study of hydrogen-fuelled freight transport
H2020-LCE-11-2017, Project number 792103, SOLWATT , Solving Water Issues for CSP Plants–Sustainability and livelihood impacts of CSP plants
JET-SEMLEP-Higher Education Innovation Fund- HEIF (2019-2020)– ‘Just’ Energy Transitions within SEMLEP Region (JET-SEMLEP)
Global Challenges Research Fund on (2019-2020, Co-I): Sustainable Energy transitions in South Africa: socio-economic aspects
The UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC) Networking Grant (2019, Co-I) -Beyond the Technical: Social and Political Implications of Delivering a Low Carbon Heat Future in the UK.
Clients
- European Community-H2020 programme
- Energy UK
- UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC)
- Brits
Energy
- Water Resources East (WRE)
- Connected Places Catapult
- London Borough of Hounslow Council
Publications
Articles In Journals
- Mabele B, Marais L, Balta‐Ozkan N, Mirzania P, Mbobo B, van der Watt P, Cloete J & Venter A (2023) Renewable energy, social disruption and formalising the social licence to operate in South Africa, Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, Available online 16 July 2023.
- Mirzania P, Gordon JA, Balta-Ozkan N, Sayan RC & Marais L (2023) Barriers to powering past coal: implications for a just energy transition in South Africa, Energy Research and Social Science, 101 (July) Article No. 103122.
- Usman R, Mirzania P, Alnaser SW, Hart P & Long C (2022) Systematic review of demand-side management strategies in power systems of developed and developing countries, Energies, 15 (21) Article No. 7858.
- Parent PA, Mirzania P, Balta-Ozkan N & King P (2021) Post subsidy conditions: evaluating the techno-economic performance of concentrating solar power in Spain, Solar Energy, 218 (April) 571-586.
- Karim M, Almond H, Sansom C, Balta-Ozkan N, Mirzania P & King P (2020) The effect of concentrated solar power plants on the socio-economic and livelihood assets of the local community and environment, AIP Conference Proceedings, 2303 (1) Article No. 150010.
- Mirzania P, Balta-Ozkan N & Marais L (2020) One technology, two pathways? Strategic Niche Management and the diverging diffusion of concentrated solar power in South Africa and the United States, Energy Research and Social Science, 69 (November) Article No. 101729.
- Mirzania P, Ford A & Ozkan N (2020) An innovative viable model for community-owned solar PV projects without FIT: comprehensive techno-economic assessment, Energy Policy, 146 (November) Article No. 111727.
- Mirzania P, Ford A, Andrews D, Ofori G & Maidment G (2019) The impact of policy changes: The opportunities of community renewable energy projects in the UK and the barriers they face, Energy Policy, 129 (June) 1282-1296.
Conference Papers
- Mirzania P, Balta-Ozkan N & Marais L (2021) Spatial divergence of South Africa’s energy transition and its implications for energy justice. In: Climate Compatible Growth, Online, 1 September 2021.
- Mirzania P, Balta-Ozkan N & Ford A (2019) For Post-Subsidy Solar PV Uptake in the UK: Techno-Economic Assessment of Integrating Solar PV and Battery Storage. In: International Conference on Sustainable Materials and Energy Technologies (ICSMET 2019), Coventry, 12-13 September 2019.
- Makanga J, Mirzania P & Balta-Ozkan N (2019) Concentrated Solar Power in South Africa: A Techno-Economic Assessment. In: International Conference on Sustainable Materials and Energy Technologies (ICSMET 2019), Coventry, 12-13 September 2019.
- Mirzania P, Ford A, Andrews D & Maidment GG (2018) Breakthrough without Feed-in-Tariff: Techno-economics assessment of battery storage as potential business case for commercial and community renewable energy projects. In: Energy Systems Conference 2018, London, 19-20 June 2018.
- Mirzania P, Ford A, Andrews D & Maidment GG (2017) Community energy in the UK: The end or the beginning of a brighter future?. In: Energy for Society: 1st International Conference on Energy Research and Social Science, Sitges, 2-5 April 2017.
- Mirzania P, Ford A, Akhavan Farshchi M & Maidment G (2016) Investigating business models for the UK 's community renewable energy. In: Energy Systems Conference, London, 14-15 June 2016.
