Postdoctoral position - LCA - Building and grid interactions - 18 months

International Society for Industrial Ecology; Versailles; Sur place; EUR 35 000 - 50 000; Plein temps

Résumé du poste

A leading research institution in environmental science is seeking a Postdoctoral Researcher to work on the environmental impact assessment of photovoltaic systems in flexible electricity networks. This 18-month position involves enhancing an eco-design tool by studying the interaction between buildings and the electricity grid. Candidates with a PhD in building energetics, strong programming skills in Python, and excellent analytical abilities are encouraged to apply.

Qualifications

• Demonstrated through a relevant master's degree or impactful publications.
• We are looking for a motivated researcher with experience in life cycle assessment.

Responsabilités

• Enhance an eco-design tool for buildings.
• Study the environmental balance of photovoltaic systems and grid interaction.
• Utilize dynamic approaches to assess electricity production variation.

Connaissances

Proficient in computer programming, especially in Python

Advanced quantitative data analysis and modeling skills

Excellent communication and presentation skills

Collaborative team player

Proficient in spoken and written English

Formation

PhD in building energetics or related fields

Master’s degree in energetics or related fields

Description du poste

Postdoctoral position - LCA - Building and grid interactions - 18 months

Title: Environmental impact assessment of PV in flexible electricity network: building and the grid interactions

Duration and starting date: fixed-term contract, 18 months starting in autumn 2025

Who we are looking for

We are seeking a talented and motivated young researcher to assist us in enhancing an eco-design tool for buildings and districts by gaining a deeper understanding of the interaction between buildings and the electricity system within the framework of the LCA-TASE project.

The environmental balance of photovoltaic systems integrated into buildings depends on the interaction between the building and the grid. You will study this balance through life-cycle assessment, accounting for electricity exported to the grid and resulting in avoided impacts. A dynamic approach will be used to account for the temporal variation in electricity production (PV and others) at an hourly time step. Consistency between building energy demand evaluation, PV production, and electricity production will be ensured by using the same weather forecast, allowing for the accounting of climate change effects consistently.

Ideally, you

• Have energetics and/or building energetic, demonstrated through a relevant master degree, PhD thesis, postdoctoral experience, or impactful peer-reviewed publications.
• Hold a PhD in a field related to building energetics, Life cycle assessment, environmental sciences or engineering, or similar disciplines.
• Are proficient in computer programming, particularly in python
• Are a collaborative team player with a strong ability to work across disciplines.
• Demonstrate advanced quantitative data analysis and modelling skills.
• Possess excellent communication and presentation skills
• Are proficient in spoken and written English

Working environment

The Center for Energy Environment and Process (CEEP) is a research centre at MINES Paris, recognized as one of the key players in French research on energy efficiency and future energy systems. It currently has around 70 members and several dozen students (Master’s and post-masters students) spread across Paris and Satory.

In this research centre, our team on ecodesign and thermal simulation of buildings pioneered building LCA in the 1980s and developed ecodesign tools at the building and district scale. We contribute to the development of a building LCA tool distributed to professionals. We are coordinating the Lab Recherche Environnement (https://www.lab-recherche-environnement.org/en/ ), a research programme resulting from the partnership between VINCI and three ParisTech engineering schools supporting interdisciplinary research on the environmental performance of buildings, neighbourhoods and infrastructures.

More on the LCA-TASE project:

The 60-month LCA-TASE project aims to provide French stakeholders in the energy transition with advanced life cycle assessment (LCA) methodologies to have reliable metrics on the environmental, social and economic impacts of renewable energies (ENR), i.e. photovoltaic and wind turbines, in order to assess their sustainability from a life cycle perspective. A consortium bringing together the main research centers (CEA, BRGM, IFPEN and INRAE) as well as recognized academics in the field of LCA from ENSAM, MINES Paris and the University of Bordeaux has been established with the aim of advancing the LCA methodology by including ecosystem services and biodiversity, the development of new indicators currently missing (circularity or the perception of landscapes), and dynamic and prospective modeling taking into account spatial issues, temporal or upscaling of these technologies. Our project is wide-ranging because it includes both emerging and more mature technologies for the production, storage and usages of energy. In particular, concrete cases of decentralized grid integration in buildings and electric vehicles will be studied, including on a national scale. Finally, it will allow local and national decision-makers to obtain a database for environmental LCA of energy systems covering the supply chain of primary and secondary raw materials. All of this LCA modeling and method enrichment will thus make it possible to obtain LCA results of different configurations to assess the environmental impacts of renewable energies and storage technologies at different scales (temporal, spatial, system) and under different constraints (e.g. territorial constraints, building integration, network constraints). This will make it possible to make an unprecedented prospective and dynamic assessment of the sovereignty of France's energy systems and will allow the French LCA research community to catch up with similar efforts carried out elsewhere in Europe.

Industrial ecology candidates include:

• Centre of Energy Environment and Processes
• Betzy Bowen, Keele University and The Kenya Industrial Research and Development Institute (KIRDI)
• Lidia Kim, National Research and Development Institute for Industrial Ecology - ECOIND