Technology Assessment Group
The Technology Assessment group is part of the multi-disciplinary Laboratory for Energy systems Analysis (LEA) at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) and is the continuation of the former GaBE Project. Technology Assessment incorporates a comprehensive range of research areas to achieve three main objectives:
- To improve understanding and thereby enable comparisons of current energy technologies and future energy options for the electricity, heating and transport sectors based on environmental, economic and socially relevant factors.
- To provide quantitative, systematic, and interdisciplinary assessments of energy technologies and energy supply strategies through the development and application of consistent methodological frameworks and databases.
- To support rational decision-making for sustainable development in the Swiss and international energy sectors, and to communicate balanced research findings to decision-makers and stakeholders.
Figure 1: Analytical framework for comprehensive technology assessment.
Latest News
Using (waste) heat to cool buildings
In a stakeholder event representatives from research and industry were able to gather information on the results of the NRP 70 joint project THRIVE (Thermally Driven Heat Pumps for Substitution of Electricity and Fossil Fuels). PSI’s Technology Assessment Group carried out an integrated sustainability assessment of the THRIVE system and assessed its performance in various application scenarios.
New Tools by TA-Group members:
- Cinelli, M., Spada, M., Zhang, Y., Kim, W., Burgherr, P. (2018). MCDA Index Tool. An interactive software to develop indices and rankings.
- Linden, D., Cinelli, M., Spada, M., Becker, W. and Burgherr, P. (2018). Composite Indicator Analysis and Optimization (CIAO) Tool
New article by TA-Group members:
- "Can renewables fill the power gap?" by Christian Bauer (April 2018). SCCER-SoE blog.
- "Current and future environmental performance of passenger cars" by Brian Cox, Christian Bauer and Chris Mutel (May 2019). Policy Brief
New reports from major projects led by TA-Group members:
New publications in scientific journals by TA-Group members:
- Marco Cinelli, Matteo Spada, Miłosz Kadzinski, Grzegorz Miebs and Peter Burgherr (2019). Advancing Hazard Assessment of Energy Accidents in the Natural Gas Sector with Rough Set Theory and Decision Rules. Energies, 12, 4178.
- Simon F. Schneider, Christian Bauer, Petr Novak and Erik J. Berg (2019). A modeling framework to assess specific energy, costs and environmental impacts of Li-ion and Na-ion batteries.
- Tom Terlouw, Tarek Al Skaif, Christian Bauer and Wilfried van Sark (2019). Optimal energy management in all-electric residential energy systems with heat and electricity storage. Applied Energy.
- Rebecca Lordan-Perret, Austin L. Wright, Peter Burgherr, Matteo Spada and Robert Rosner (2019). Attacks on energy infrastructure targeting democratic institutions. Energy Policy.
- Chris Mutel, Xun Liao, Laure Patouillard, Jane Bare, Peter Fantke, Rolf Frischknecht, Michael Hauschild, Olivier Jolliet, Danielle Maia de Souza, Alexis Laurent, Stephan Pfister and Francesca Verones (2019). Overview and recommendations for regionalized life cycle impact assessment. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, Vol. 24, Issue 5, pp. 856–865.