Johannes Schmidt

Current Research Activities

My current research activities are mainly linked to the ERC funded refuel project, where we explore the links between land-use, climate, and renewable fuel production and trade and the netzero 2040 project where we develop scenarios for the full decarbonization of Austria until 2040.

Previous Research Activities

From 2016 - 2019, I was involved in the RE_EXTREME research project together with Elisabeth Wetterlund at Luleå Technical University and Sylvain Leduc at IIASA, looking into how extreme events in the weather system affect renewable power generation. For that purpose, we used the COPA model, which I previously developed at a research stay at the Energy Planning Program, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.

I was visiting researcher at the EU Comission's Joint Research Center, Institute for Energy & Transportation of the EU Commission in Petten, Netherlands. There, I looked into the effects of renewable support policy on the spatial distribution of wind generation plants (link to paper, gated). In a subsequent project on wind energy, we assessed, together with other institutes at BOKU university here in Vienna, the potentials of wind energy with a special focus on considering limitations due to social acceptance issues. (Link to project website - in German)

In my doctoral thesis, I co-developed the Austrian BeWhere model together with Sylvain Leduc at IIASA. I used it to assess costs and greenhouse gas emissions of alternative bioenergy applications. Later, the same model was also used in an interdisciplinary context to assess the consequences of energy autarky for a small Austrian region (link, gated) and, in a large integrated modelling compound, the impacts of agricultural policy and climate change on ecosystem services, economics, and bio-energy supply. (link, gated)