Combatting the Energy Industry’s Environmental Problems
Canada’s energy industry is one of its largest economic sectors. Pressure to meet international goals to mitigate climate change and to abide by other environmental regulations, combined with the need to satisfy increasing energy demands, represents the greatest challenge for the industry. This challenge is intensified by the fact that it also faces a number of uncertain variables. Only by gaining insight into these uncertainties will the energy industry have the capacity to deal with many related environmental risks.
As Canada Research Chair in Energy and Environment, Dr. Gordon Huang is developing technologies to build such a capacity. He and his research team are using inexact optimization approaches to tackle many complexities of energy and environmental management. In particular, they are examining environmental management under uncertainty, and energy systems planning under changing climatic conditions.
Huang’s technologies have already been used in multiple sectors, and in many regions and jurisdictions, as the scientific bases for formulating policies that have enormous socioeconomic implications. The resulting findings revealed various complexities in energy and environmental systems and obstacles that hinder sustainable energy development.
Our ability to deal with the enormous costs of abating environmental problems in the energy industry hinges on sound design, planning and management. Huang’s research will help strengthen Canada's ability to be an international leader in managing energy and environmental concerns in the future.