Applying Systems Engineering on Energy Challenges

Systems engineering is a discipline with methods and techniques to address complex problems. We want to study how Systems Engineering methods can help to address today’s grand challenges, such as the energy problem. The first step is problem definition which aims at articulating the problem in its context as clearly as possible. Humanity will have to cope with the energy problem, one of the most critical challenges of humanity in this century. The energy problem itself is related to other challenges facing humanity like water, food and poverty. The key challenges concerning energy are climate change and other environmental impact of energy production and use, energy security, and long-term sustainable and affordable access to energy. The intention is to investigate the energy problem through applying system engineering practices aiming to reach a more clear, concise, and consistent understanding of the energy problem. This will help in both reaching a common understanding platform for all those involved in the energy problem and pave the way to identify the needs and thus suggesting and assessing solutions. Our first attempts to formulate a problem statement and to identify energy needs indicate that there are many assumptions in current literature. © 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection