Ruaridh Macdonald
Energy Systems Research Lead, MITEI
Research Scientist, MIT Energy Initiative
Research interests
Energy system optimization, Grid reliability, Interannual variation, Decarbonizing industry
Research areas
Ruaridh Macdonald is the energy systems research lead at the MIT Energy Initiative. His research is focused on improving energy system modeling tools to better support decision-making in infrastructure planning, R&D decisions, and policy design.
His recent work has looked at how best to compress model inputs to allow for decades of weather and demand data to be considered, incorporate important nonlinear details in technology representations, co-optimize multi-sector models, and decompose models so that they can be solved on large computing clusters. He uses these tools to answer contemporary energy questions, particularly around grid reliability, intersectoral coupling, and the role of emerging technologies. Macdonald is a co-lead developer of the MacroEnergy, GenX, Dolphyn, and Navi tools. He is originally from the UK and completed his PhD in nuclear science and engineering at MIT.
