Valeria Jana Schwanitz

Field of work

I am a professor in energy economics and a Distinguished Fellow at the Schumacher Institute for Sustainable Systems, Bristol, UK. I am a jury member of the WWF’s One Planet City Challenge (OPCC) in 2024.  I am a member of the scientific advisory board for the NFDI4Energy project "National Research Data Infrastructure for the Interdisciplinary Energy System Research", which is lead by the University of Oldenburg (Germany).

Scientific publications: Please go to my profile at Research Gate

Personal background: I am an energy economist with experience in first-principle models, energy system modeling, and empirical analysis of coupled human-nature systems in the context of climate change and sustainable development. For peer-reviewed publications, visit research gate or browse the list below.

Ongoing projects:

• Horizon Europe Project WHITECYCLE (07/2022-06/2025), applied research project to process and recycle PET from complex waste. Led by Michelin, 16 European partners. HVL responsible for data management and leads WP on LCA and sustainability assessments. Website.
• EU Green Deal Project  STORIES, "Energy Storage Research Infrastructure Eco-System" (11/2021-10/2025). 17 Partners and 17 Linked Partners (as HVL, co-leading FAIR data tasks). Website.
• EEA-Grant, Sustainable development concept in innovative education (2023-2024) - Education Programme, lead by WSB Wroclaw, Poland. HVL to develop online course "Fossil fuel free".
• Jean Monnet Chair on Industrial Ecology and Circular Economy. Led by A. Diemer (UCA, HVL) & ERASME - Jean Monet Center of Excellence on Sustainable Development at the University Clermont-Auvergne, France (from April 2019). Cooperation in education & research. 

Finalized projects:

• WWF project - Validation of city-level carbon footprints on behalf of the Science-Based Target Network. (07/2022-04/2023)
• H2020 Project EERAdata. "Towards a FAIR and open data ecosystem in the low carbon energy research community" (from 03/2020). 6 European partners, HVL leads. Project website & project wiki.  
• H2020 Project DRES2Markets. " Technical, business, and regulatory approaches to enhance the renewable energy capabilities to take part actively in the electricity and ancillary service markets" (08/2020-01/2023). 15 European partners. Project website.
• H2020 Research Project COMETS. "Collective action Models for Energy Transition and Social Innovation" (05/2019-04/2022). 12 European partners, HVL built a Europe-wide inventory for citizen-led low carbon energy projects. More information & links
• AI for sustainable energy (09/2020-09/2022). HVL financed research cooperation between the research groups "Data Science" and "Data-driven energy system analysis".