About the program

The Mistra Electrification (ME) programme was formulated in response to Mistra’s research call “Energy Transitions”. The program has a shared leadership between Energiforsk and Chalmers University of Technology. Energiforsk act program host, having responsibility for the overall management and administration, while scientific leadership is provided by Chalmers University of Technology with support from Energiforsk.

Vision and aims

The vision of the Mistra Electrification programme is to accelerate the transition to a sustainable, efficient energy system, through the creation of actionable knowledge for a feasible and fair transition.

The program has three primary aims:

To articulate technologically viable pathways and solutions to decarbonize the energy system, with particular focus on electrification and sector coupling.
To examine what is required for low-carbon solutions to be deployed sufficiently rapidly to reduce emissions at the required pace.
To understand how the energy transition can support development of the economy in a wider sense.

Since this involves a range of technical, socio-political, and economic issues, the program is interdisciplinary and will apply both technological analysis and social sciences. Conclusions on technological developments will be analyzed through the lens of socio-political and economic feasibility, increasing their relevance and impact.

We focus on electrification and sector coupling as prime enablers of the transition across the economy, rather than addressing power, heating, transport, and industry separately. Links between these sectors and to the electricity system are central research areas. We will study sector specific issues and embed them in an energy systems context so to understand how each of them can contribute to the transition.

Academic partners

The research in the program will be carried out by:

Chalmers University of Technology (three divisions): Energy Technology, Physical Resource Theory and Division of Electric Power Engineering
IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute
University of Exeter
Lund University, and
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU),

with the researchers involved representing a broad competence within energy and climate research.

Programme Management Team

Programme Director and Leader of WP2

Filip Johnsson

Filip Johnsson is Programme Director and Professor in Sustainable Energy Systems, Department of Space, Earth and Environment at Chalmers University of Technology.

filip.johnsson@chalmers.se

Programme Vice Director and Leader of WP1

Helena Sellerholm

Helena Sellerholm is Programme Vice Director and Operations Manager & Programme Coordinator Heat & Power at Energiforsk.

helena.sellerholm@energiforsk.se

Co-leader of WP3

Jessica Jewell

Jessica Jewell is an Associate Professor in Energy Transitions at the Department of Space, Earth and Environment at Chalmers University and a Professor at the Centre for Climate and Energy Transformation at the University of Bergen.

jewell@chalmers.se

Co-leader of WP3

Aleh Cherp

Aleh Cherp is a Professor at the International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics at Lund University and in the Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy of Central European University in Austria.

aleh.cherp@iiiee.lu.se

Co-leader of WP4

Patrick Devine-Wright

Patrick Devine-Wright is Professor of Human Geography based in the Geography department and Global Systems Institute, University of Exeter, UK.

P.G.Devine-Wright@exeter.ac.uk

Co-leader of WP4

Magnus Hennlock

Magnus Hennlock is a senior researcher at IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute.

magnus.hennlock@ivl.se

Leader of WP5

Bengt Kriström

Bengt Kriström is a professor of Resource Economics, Department of Forest Economics, SLU-Umeå, and Senior Advisor CERE. He works on energy economics and cost-benefit analysis.

bengt.kristrom@slu.se

Communications Lead

Daniel Hirsch

Daniel Hirsch is a Senior Communications Officer at Energiforsk, based in Stockholm.

daniel.hirsch@energiforsk.se