Dr. James Glynn is a former Senior Research Scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy. He has over 15 years of experience within energy systems analysis, energy technology research, development, and deployment, collaborating with governments, technologists, utilities, suppliers, and energy analysts in the United States, Europe, and Asia. His published work spans the whole integrated energy system, including energy, economy & climate. Dr. Glynn is internationally recognized for his energy systems modeling innovations across hybrid modeling methods, uncertainty methods, and energy security assessments. James currently serves on the Integrated Assessment Modelling Consortium (IAMC) scientific working group (SWG) in climate-related Financial Analysis.
Dr. Glynn’s research interests focus on developing and applying integrated techno-economic energy systems models and their interactions with the climate, economy, and society to find resilient pathways to future sustainable development goals. He is an expert developer and user of the International Energy Agency’s Energy Technology Systems Analysis Programmes’ (IEA-ETSAP) TIMES framework. He has led and actively contributes to the global ETSAP-TIAM developer’s group exploring novel developments in TIMES energy systems modeling. His national and global model applications have provided insights into Irish, European, and International energy policy, legislation, and investment decisions in collaboration with a broad range of stakeholders.
He is an EU-commission invited expert in energy systems modeling and a reviewer of the EU Commission’s DG-ENER new energy systems model METIS. He has given expert witness testimony to government committees on carbon capture and storage (CCS), carbon budgets, and net-zero carbon energy systems transition. He has served on the scientific advisory boards for multiple national and European research projects, such as the German DLR BEAM-ME project on high-performance optimization algorithms. He collaborates on numerous international energy-climate networks, including the Integrated Assessment Modelling Consortium (IAMC) and JPI-Climate. He is an affiliate invited member of the IEA-ETSAP executive committee. He has successfully led multiple national and international research & consulting project consortia.
Dr. Glynn’s recent publications include;
- the highest resolution assessment of global rooftop solar energy potential,
- improving the technical realism of the power sector in integrated assessment models,
- the impact of future climate on the technical operation of the energy system,
- the role of direct air carbon capture and storage in global mitigation scenarios,
- the impact of local air pollution on equitable global decarbonization,
- as well as the development of the first zero-carbon energy system pathways for Ireland consistent with the Paris Agreement.
He holds two masters degrees (NUIG, Strathclyde) and a PhD (UCC) in areas related to energy systems analysis across engineering, science, and economics. He has affiliations with the Science Foundation Ireland MaREI Centre in University College Cork (UCC) and the engineering faculty in Imperial College London.