Cenergia Lab

The Center for Energy and Environmental Economy (CENERGIA), created in 2002, is an integrated research laboratory of the Energy Planning Program (PPE) at COPPE/UFRJ. The mission of CENERGIA is to develop applied research and disseminate innovative knowledge about complex interactions between the energy sector and socioeconomic development and the global and local environmental dimensions. Through the application of pioneering energy planning modeling tools, the work of CENERGIA supports energy and climate policy makers in the understanding of the synergies and conflicts associated with technological innovation for a transition to an economy of low carbon emission in Brazil, the Latin America and the world. CENERGIA has worked intensely with integrated energy and environmental optimization models, especially with the model MESSAGE-Brazil since 2003, and more recently, with the national models TIMES-Brazil and REMIX-CEM-B, and the global models COFFEE (Computable Integrated Framework for Energy and the Environment) and TEA (Total-Economy integrated Assessment Model, a computable general equilibrium model). With time, these integrated assessment models (IAMs) have been improved and adapted to better represent the energy and land use sectors in Brazil, Latin America and the world, incorporating more than 8,000 technological options of energy supply and demand and their interactions with economic development, climate change, air pollution, water consumption and changes in land use. Moreover, the IAMs developed at CENERGIA are integrated with specific models adapted and/or created at the laboratory, such as the refining model CAESAR or even other tools prepared for life cycle assessment, process analysis, assessment of carbon capture facilities, concentrated solar power, PV, etc.