Stefan Gahrens

Stefan Gahrens wrote his thesis at Sustec between 2019 and 2020, funded by the IDEA League and the German National Academic Foundation.

He will write his master’s thesis on Electrifying Buildings. Specifically, he will apply agent-based modeling to investigate how policymakers can distribute the cost of electricity systems in such a way that heating and cooling technologies will be electrified. By focusing on decarbonizing the buildings sector with heat pumps, his research integrates into previous research at SusTec on decarbonizing the electricity sector with solar PV and battery technologies and the transport sector with electrical vehicles.

Stefan holds a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Power Engineering and Business Administration from RWTH Aachen University, where he is currently enrolled in the consecutive master’s program. In the academic year 2018/19, he studied Chinese Language, Economics, and Sustainable Power Engineering at Tsinghua University as a fellow of the 31st cohort of the China Program by the German National Academic Foundation, Alfried Krupp Foundation, and China Scholarship Council. During his time in Aachen, he conducted research on Sustainable Mass Customization and Green Nudging as a research assistant at Prof. Frank Piller’s Group for Technology and Innovation Management (TIM). He has gained work experience in consulting at innogy Consulting GmbH in Essen, where he developed a process for the steering of improvement measures in the utility’s B2B segment, and at CPC AG in Beijing.