Internship / Master’s degree thesis student for energy policy analysis: Development of a framework of technical factors determining fitness for energy transition (R-IN1804)

NewClimate Institute regularly works with motivated Master’s degree students, interested in a career in energy/ climate policy, who may join the NewClimate Institute team for an internship of 3 months’ minimum duration, and/ or for a Master thesis placement with a 6-month duration. For this position, we are seeking a candidate to support our research related to potential restrictions limiting the penetration of Renewable Energy (RE) in electrical power systems as well as respective ways to overcome these restrictions.  Possible tasks may include, for example:

• Co-develop a methodology to categorize electrical power systems, in particular their technical and market characteristics, with respect to their current potential to allow a higher penetration of variable RE sources.
• Research existing energy system in a number of countries and derive lessons for best practice solutions to allow more flexibility in the power system (which will lead to any increase in the uptake of variable RE sources like wind and solar).
• Co-develop a methodology to analyse and identify country specific policy options for supporting an increased uptake of variable RE in the power system.
• Apply the methodologies to analyse a selected number of countries (including Argentina).

Combination of both an internship with a master thesis is generally possible. The internship will be remunerated. Actual conditions depend on qualification of the candidate.

Candidate profile

The preferred candidate is a highly motivated Master’s degree student with a high degree of responsibility and an independent working style, and a deep interest in the field of climate change policy and electrical power systems.

Essential requirements:

• Current enrolment in a Master’s degree (or equivalent) in a field of study with a focus on power systems analysis (e.g. electrical/ industrial or other engineering, energy system analysis, power economics, etc.) (near-completion).
• Fundamental understanding of electrical power systems and concepts of relevant generation technologies.
• High level of interest and competence in quantitative analysis and data handling in Microsoft Excel.
• Languages: English essential, advanced German and/or other languages of advantage.

Application procedure

If you are interested in an internship or Master’s thesis position, as described above, please send us your CV including a short cover letter to recruitment@newclimate.org. Please include the code “R-IN1804” in the subject line of your email.