Master Thesis

You can apply for a Master thesis all year round. If you are interested in one of the topics listed below, please use our application form and attach your CV, current transcript of records, as well as other documents that might be relevant. In case you have an own research idea that fits to the research focus of the Bits to Energy Lab, please provide a short, but meaningful description of your topic. Applications should be sent to the respective supervisor via e-mail.

 

Open Topics

Topic Supervisor

An increasing number of front-of-package food labels are used in supermarkets and online stores to influence consumers’ food choices (e.g. nutritional quality, type of farming etc.). Consumer associations are calling for unified labels and want them to be introduced on a mandatory basis. The goal of this thesis is to analyse how well consumers understand current food labels, to develop suggestions for improvement and to empirically evaluate them. The methodology should include a combination of an online survey/experiment, literature research and potentially, some interviews.
 Leonard Michels

Nudging refers to interventions by public or private agents aimed at steering peoples’ decisions in a particular direction, while still perpetuating the freedom to make individual decisions. More and more nudges are implemented in our everyday environment. They unobtrusively influence our decisions, typically with the goal of changing our behaviour. Currently, there is a debate ongoing regarding the welfare effects of nudging. Recent studies use individuals’ willingness to pay for receiving or avoiding nudges to evaluate their welfare effects. The goal of this thesis is:

  • to provide a literature overview of the related work and
  • to develop and conduct an online survey that evaluates individuals’ willingness to pay for a specific nudge in the nutrition or in the sustainability context.
 Leonard Michels

With the increasing use of decentralised energy resources (DERs) like Solar PV, the pricing mechanisms for electricity consumption at the distribution level are undergoing a transformation. Since DERs lead to local production and consumption of electricity, there is a reduced use of the higher voltage levels of the grid. Current electricity tariffs include the cost of the use of these higher voltage levels of the grid. With technological advances of the information systems used in the energy sector, newer, dynamic pricing mechanisms are conceivable, including locational grid pricing. The thesis should:

  • describe the current situation and challenges and
  • conduct a quantitative analysis of the impact of locational pricing.
 Prakhar Mehta

With the deployment of smart metering infrastructure, high-resoultion real-world electricity consumption data become available. This thesis focuses on a quantitative techno-economic analysis of solar photovoltaic systems under varying market conditions such as subsidies, feed-in tariffs and prices of the technologies involved (Solar Panels, Batteries, Electric Grid Infrastructure).
 Prakhar Mehta

From a technical and financial perspective, Community Solar Photovoltaic (PV) systems perform better than Individual PV systems of the same capacity, and allow for a greater proportion of households to consume renewable energy who otherwise did not have an option. However, decisions to invest in solar PV or to join a solar PV community are subject to a variety of factors. This thesis focuses on qualitative reviews of existing community PV systems in Germany/elsewhere to answer the following questions:

  • What are the key motivations for community formation?
  • Are ‘Opinion Leaders’ imperative to the formation of a community?
  • What technical rules of thumb are used by utility companies for capacity sizing, and the number and type of members in a community?
  • What choices of Business Models and Financing are prevalent?
 Prakhar Mehta