Agent-based modelling of sustainable residential electricity consumer behaviour
Researcher in sustainable production and consumption, the service economy, energy markets, and electricity balancing mechanisms.
Gary Polhill did a degree in Artificial Intelligence and a PhD in Neural Networks before spending 18 months in industry as a professional programmer. Since 1997 he has been working at the Institute on agent-based modelling of human-natural systems, and has worked on various international and interdisciplinary projects using agent-based modelling to study agricultural systems, lifestyles, and transitions to more sustainable ways of living. In 2016, he was elected President of the European Social Simulation Association, and was The James Hutton Institute’s 2017 Science Challenge Leader on Developing Technical and Social Innovations that Support Sustainable and Resilient Communities.
To understand the nature of sustainable biophysical/economic systems. To determine the necessary and sufficient conditions for sustainability. To explore the trade-off between sustainability and social or economic justice. To investigate the application of the MEP and/or the MEPP to economic systems, or agent-based models of economic systems.
IRPact - An integrated agent based modeling approach in innovation diffusion
Goal: The goal of IRPact is to develop a flexible and generic innovation-diffusion ABM (agent-based modelling) framework, based on requirements derived from a literature analysis. The aim of IRPact is to allow for modeling a large number of application contexts and questions of interest.
It provides a formal model (framework) as well as a software implementation in order to assist modelers with a basic infrastructure for their own research.
Conceptually it is thought to be part of the IRPsim (https://irpsim.uni-leipzig.de), with the vision to bring together rational approaches and cognitive modeling in an integrated approach within the context of sustainable energy markets.
energy and environmental sciences
My research examines the most effective and efficient policies for renewable energy development using an approach that integrates input-output analysis, life cycle analysis, econometric, and agent-based modelling to estimate the impacts of the policies to economic, emission, extracted materials, renewable energy capacity and social acceptance.