This is one of two PhD positions that are part of an international and multidisciplinary research project funded by the European Commission’s Horizon Europe programme entitled “Innovative Storage Technology and Operations in Hydropower”. The overall project goal is to develop innovative and sustainable pumped storage technologies and control strategies to support the flexibility and resilience of the EU energy grid. This is achieved by enhancing the lifetime and recyclability of components and equipment, devising operation strategies for unconventional conditions (e.g. salt water or coal mine applications), and through sensor-based condition monitoring systems. Furthermore, digital tools for operational management are employed to consider the dynamics of renewable energy generation and demand as well as improving efficiency and reliability. These individual components are integrated in a cyber-physical platform for advanced decision support to promote a broader operating range and increased flexibility of EU hydropower generation and storage as part of Europe’s energy transition.

The specific focus of your PhD project is the analysis of costs caused by the innovations developed in the project along the value chain (production, use and maintenance, recycling). You get the chance to work with technological and operational hydropower experts from the early development stages of technologies to inform and influence the design processes. By means of economic life cycle costing analysis (LCC) you will determine capital expenditures (CAPEX), their relation to operational expenditures (OPEX), as well as “hidden” costs along the value chain. Further, you can develop ways to translate environmental/societal impacts determined by project partners into economic costs (monetization) to allow for a comparison and aggregation of internal costs and environmental/societal externalities. Finally, you will integrate the economic analysis into a broader life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) to identify synergies and trade-offs between technological, environmental, economic and societal aspects to support decision making in the development of hydropower technologies. The integration could be conducted through an absolute sustainability assessment that considers staying within planetary boundaries and meeting basic human needs (doughnut economics). You will work in close cooperation with a second PhD candidate whose focus is on environmental life cycle assessment.