We held an invitation-only workshop on Macro-Energy Systems in September 2020 via Zoom. In August 2019, we published a paper in Joule outlining the need for a recognized discipline and academic infrastructure supporting research and researchers focusing on large scale energy systems and the energy transition, a discipline that we named Macro-Energy Systems. This workshop represented the next step towards the realization of the vision we laid out in this paper. Additionally, a recorded seminar discussing Macro-Energy Systems and some thoughts about next steps can be found here.

There were two key objectives of the Macro-Energy Systems workshop: first, to bring together the key participants of this community to discuss and identify the boundaries, key unanswered questions, and foundational knowledge of the field encompassed by Macro-Energy Systems; second, to create ongoing support for the academic infrastructure that can sustain Macro-Energy Systems (MES) as an active community. Key sessions of the workshop addressed topics such as ‘What are the frontiers of MES research currently?’, ‘What are major critiques of MES work and how have we or might we respond to them?’, and ‘What are the skills students need to learn to be successful in MES?’. The small workshop was held via Zoom meetings with sessions conducted as highly interactive panel discussions.

More information about the workshop