Denmark already gets a large part of it’s electricity from wind farms. Countries like The Netherlands expect the amount of wind to increase quickly the coming year. You will create a model that explores the consequences of this adoption. Your proposed research question: How can the adoption and impact of wind energy be modeled using agent based techniques?

Agent based modeling (ABM) is an exciting new modeling technique and a valuable skill to acquire. We think wind power adoption/impact is well suited to the ABM approach. You will make your agent based model using the GAMA platform that combines ease of use with productivity. It’s up to you to make the final design but we currently envision the following agents working together:

• Wind Power Agent will make the wind blow. Wind force will determined by chance, latitude, longitude, altitude and moment during the year.
• Wind Technology Agents determine the cost of producing and placing windmills. Cost will decrease over time trough learning curves. Your technology agents will embody these learning curves for different technologies. E.g. regular windmills (on land and at sea), small windmills, windmills on the edge of buildings and (!) airborne wind power (on land an at sea).
• Ecoland Area Agents accept more or less windmills (e.g. sea vs city) and they have an impact on the cost (e.g. wind at sea is more expensive). You will divide EcoLand into different areas using shapefiles and will determine how many windmills are acceptable within each area and what the costs of building in the area are.
• Wind Mill Agents will be placed at available locations if there is enough return on investment.
• Wind Energy Agents representing nodes in the electricity network will summarize the energy output of Wind Mill Agents at their location.

With this model you should be able to run different scenario’s. E.g. “What happens if the learning curves become steeper for certain technologies?” If time permits you will determine if your model is able to mimic the adoption and output of a real case such as Denmark, Germany or The Netherlands. Our goal is that you finish your master thesis with a scientific article.

It would be ideal if you have a good understanding of wind energy technology, agent based modelling and GAMA. If you don’t have the required knowledge and skills already you must have the confidence that you can assimilate them quickly.

You can start a.s.a.p. You will conduct your work either at your university or at Elaad (Arnhem). We will reimburse 500 euro a month and expenses.