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Background

Dr Pegah Mirzania is an Academic Fellow in Energy Systems and Course Director for the MSc Data Science and AI for Sustainability at the Centre for Energy Systems and Strategy, ³ÉÈËÖ±²¥. She is an interdisciplinary energy researcher specialising in local energy systems, socio-technical energy transitions, community energy, energy justice, and the adoption of low-carbon technologies.

Pegah obtained her PhD from the Centre for Efficient and Renewable Energy in Buildings (CEREB) at London South Bank University in 2019, where she developed viable business models for integrating solar PV and energy storage into community-owned renewable energy projects under post-subsidy market conditions.

Since joining ³ÉÈËÖ±²¥ in 2019, Pegah has contributed to and led research funded by UKRI, EPSRC, HEIF, UKERC, Horizon Europe, and other national and international funding programmes. Her work combines qualitative and quantitative approaches with techno-economic analysis to investigate real-world energy challenges and support evidence-based policy and decision-making. She has extensive experience working with policymakers, industry stakeholders, community organisations, and international research partners to advance sustainable and equitable energy solutions.

Her work has been published in leading international journals and has contributed to both academic and policy debates on local energy systems, community energy, energy justice, and low-carbon energy transitions in the UK and internationally.

Research opportunities

I am interested in supervising / co-supervising research (PhD) students with a research interest in:

- Smart local energy system

- Socio-technical energy transitions

- Local and decentralised energy systems

- Community energy and energy justice

- Demand-side management and energy flexibility

- Multi-vector energy systems

- Green hydrogen and the hydrogen economy

- Energy policy, governance, and stakeholder engagement

- Techno-economic assessment of low-carbon energy technologies

Current activities

Pegah's overall research interests focus on developing ways to achieve a sustainable, fair and clean socio-technical energy system. She is particularly interested in developing innovative business and techno-economic models for local energy systems and investigating how communities fit in and function in processes linked to scaling up renewables.

Completed Projects:

Pegah's overall research interests focus on developing ways to achieve a sustainable, fair and clean socio-technical energy system. She is particularly interested in developing innovative business and techno-economic models for local energy systems and investigating how communities fit in and function in processes linked to scaling up renewables.

Current Project:

Horizon Europe INNO-TREC (2026–2029) – Co-Investigator and Task Leader (Task 3.2, WP3: Social Innovation), Leading research on community energy organisations, social innovation, and innovative financing models for local energy systems.

Completed Projects:

Navigating EDI Complexity: Addressing Challenges in the Energy Research Sector (2025) – Co-Investigator. IGNITE Network, examined challenges and opportunities associated with equality, diversity, and inclusion in the energy research sector.

REACH: Rural Energy and Community Heat (2024–2025) – Researcher. Strategic Innovation Fund (Innovate UK and Ofgem). Assessed the impacts of low-carbon technologies and developed a carbon assessment framework for rural and community energy applications.

Empowering Communities: The Green Hydrogen Network (2024–2025) – Principal Investigator. ³ÉÈËÖ±²¥ Global Research Fund (£14,998). Explored governance models, opportunities, and challenges associated with community-led hydrogen projects in the UK and Germany.

Prototype Planning Tool for Green Hydrogen Generation and Use in UK Agriculture (2022–2024) – Co-I Researcher. EPSRC Impact Acceleration Account. Investigated the integration of green hydrogen technologies within agricultural systems to support sector decarbonisation.

Protecting Minority Ethnic Communities Online (PRIME) (2022–2025) – Researcher. EPSRC-funded project. Examined the experiences of Middle Eastern communities with digitalised services, including energy, housing, and health systems.

MACRO: Understanding and Managing Cyber Security Risks for Low-Carbon Mobility-as-a-Service Applications (2021–2023) – Researcher. EPSRC-funded project. Investigated the social, behavioural, regulatory, and market opportunities and barriers associated with Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) and implications for governance.

TRILEMA: Transition to Low-Emission Airport Infrastructure from an Energy Systems Perspective (2022) – Co-Investigator, Researcher. HEIF-funded project. Facilitated knowledge exchange between the energy and aviation sectors to support airport decarbonisation.

LOCESA: Low Carbon Energy Demand Scenarios for Aviation (2021–2022) – Researcher. Department for Transport and Connected Places Catapult. Developed low-carbon energy demand scenarios for the aviation sector.

Network H2 (2021) – Researcher. UK Research and Innovation (EPSRC). Conducted a techno-economic feasibility assessment of hydrogen-fuelled freight transport.

SOLWATT: Solving Water Issues for CSP Plants (2017–2020) – Post-doctoral Researcher. Horizon 2020 Project No. 792103. Investigated the sustainability and livelihood impacts of concentrated solar power (CSP) plants on local communities.

JET-SEMLEP: Just Energy Transitions within the SEMLEP Region (2019–2020) – Researcher. HEIF. Examined socio-economic aspects of regional energy transitions and low-carbon development.

Sustainable Energy Transitions in South Africa: Socio-Economic Aspects (2019–2020) – Co-Investigator. Global Challenges Research Fund

Beyond the Technical: Social and Political Implications of Delivering a Low-Carbon Heat Future in the UK (2019) – Co-Investigator. UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC) Networking Grant

Clients

European Community-H2020 programme

Energy UK

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)

UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC)

Brits Energy

Water Resources East (WRE)

Connected Places Catapult

London Borough of Hounslow Council

Publications

• Articles in journals
• Conference papers
• Books