Security of energy supply is increasingly vital for nations globally. Individual nations can be affected by issues such as availability of natural resources, cost, distribution and alignment with national and international low carbon objectives. Whilst renewable energy resources offer a potential solution, technology and deployment across the world is irregular.

Carefully managed markets are increasingly being used as a mechanism to preserve and supply clean energy. This places energy economics and legal research at the cutting edge of environmental protection, an area we are actively involved in. This feeds into important policymaker decisions to reconcile low carbon energy supply and demand such as:

  • What technologies to deploy and where;

  • The extent to which subsidies should be used to attract investment;

  • Balancing demand-side needs with environmental impact and regulation;

  • Trading strategies, such as what to import and at what cost.

We have been delivering high quality research in the field of energy policy and regulation for over 30 years, working for local and central government, industry, research councils, and regulatory agencies (both nationally and internationally) across a range of policy areas.

About our research

Our greatest strength is the ability to combine the academic rigour and long-term perspective of a university with the commercial and business focus of industry.

Our excellence in strategic and applied research has enabled us to make significant contributions to the world around us for over 60 years. We address real life challenges and focus on research that is of strategic and practical importance.

We provide a supportive research community for students and our academic work is regularly published in journal article, book or thesis form.

Working with us

We have been delivering high quality research in the field of energy policy and regulation for over 30 years, working for local and central government, industry, research councils, and regulatory agencies (both nationally and internationally) across a range of policy areas.

We offer practical decision support to policymakers on natural resources management.

Examples of how we can contribute include:

• Using economic theory to value natural capital in land and water resources, to aid management decisions and help ensure the capacity for ecosystem services is optimised
• Forecasting future natural resource scarcity and consequent resource security risks
• Appraising economic and financial investments in renewable energy infrastructure
• Evaluating the requirements, implications, and impact of legal frameworks (including regulatory and governance systems) using stakeholder analysis.

Training is an important part of service delivery. We have developed bespoke courses covering areas such as:

• Energy and policy futures and markets
• Environmental evaluation
• Renewable energy technologies.