"PhD Position on Multi-Carrier Energy Hubs for Horticulture with Positive Grid Impact"

Job Description

Do you want work on next-generation energy system modelling methods to support real-world decisions? Do you have solid quantitative and analytical skills that you want to develop further in an international setting?

The energy transition requires the deployment of large amounts of renewable power capacity and the electrification of many energy end uses. However, this increases the fluctuations of demand and generation the system must deal with, and exacerbates grid congestion. Multi-Carrier Energy Hubs (MC-EHs), where multiple energy generation, conversion, and storage technologies across diverse carriers integrate smartly and locally, show promise for overcoming such barriers. They enable circumventing grid congestion while offering flexibility to the large-scale system.

In the Netherlands, the sector with the highest potential for deploying innovative MC-EHs is that of greenhouse horticulture. Via its combined heat-and-power (CHP) plants used for electricity, heat and CO2 demands, it provides 11% of the yearly national electricity supply and 10% of the dispatchable power capacity that balances the increasing variability of demand and renewables on the grid. However, the energy transition requires horticulture to shift from fossil CHPs to sources like geothermal and solar. If this occurs, the sector would turn from a flexible net electricity producer into an inflexible net electricity consumer. The grid would lose flexible CHPs and need new, ad-hoc dispatchable capacity investments, as already occurring in some areas. Instead, horticulture has the potential to solve and accelerate the Dutch energy transition by shifting to innovative MC-EHs designed from the start to benefit not only local greenhouse needs but also to act as system buffers that support large-scale renewable integration and mitigate grid congestion. We call this a 'system-positive' MC-EH.

In this PhD trajectory, we focus on developing the methods and tools required to support decision-making during this transition towards ‘system-positive’ MC-EH, with application to greenhouse horticulture. We want to address this challenge in various stages. First, by supporting the design of a first-of-its-kind system-positive MC-EH for a real-life pilot in collaboration with real-world industrial partners and stakeholders. Second, by generalising the methods so they can be applied to any horticulture system in the Netherlands and enabling the scale-up of the concept to the whole system.

To achieve the above goals, you will develop cutting-edge energy system design methods, building on tools and methods that our team excels at, such as open-source energy system modelling frameworks and Modelling to Generate Alternatives (MGA), and combining them with techniques from AI and other fields to ease computation and ensure robust assessments.

This PhD position is funded under the SPROUT project, funded by RVO. You will work closely with other researchers at TU Delft (such as Koty McAllister, from Mechanical Engineering), Wageningen University & Research, and Leiden University, as well as our industrial partners: Division Q, eFuelution, Resourcefully and Westland Infra.

You will work more closely with Francesco Lombardi and will be embedded in the Energy & Industry section, where you will build on existing expertise and models on energy system optimisation and MGA. You will join a lively community of internationally renowned interdisciplinary energy researchers in the Department of Engineering Systems and Services at TU Delft.

Job Requirements

You must be able to demonstrate:

• Masters degree in engineering (e.g., CoSEM, SET if you attended TU Delft), physics or other related discipline (must have been awarded by the agreed-upon starting date of the PhD).
• Strong quantitative and analytical skills.
• Very good written and spoken communication skills in English.

Bonus points if you have:

• Programming experience Python or a similar language.
• Knowledge of open-source energy system modelling frameworks, such as Calliope, PyPSA, Tulipa or similar.
• Taken courses in Optimisation, Energy System Modelling or similar.
• Prior research experience, especially in energy system modelling or other energy-related research.
• Knowledge of Dutch language.

Conditions of Employment

Doctoral candidates will be offered a 4-year period of employment in principle, but in the form of 2 employment contracts. An initial 1,5 year contract with an official go/no go progress assessment within 15 months. Followed by an additional contract for the remaining 2,5 years assuming everything goes well and performance requirements are met.

Salary and benefits are in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities, increasing from €3059 - €3881 gross per month, from the first year to the fourth year based on a fulltime contract (38 hours), plus 8% holiday allowance and an end-of-year bonus of 8.3%.

As a PhD candidate you will be enrolled in the TU Delft Graduate School.

Application Procedure

Are you interested in this vacancy? Please apply no later than 26 February 2026 via the application button and upload the following documents:

• Motivation statement, including a paragraph outlining your main research interests within the areas outlined in the job advertisement (max. one A4 page).
• CV, including a brief description of your three most impactful achievements to date (these achievements can be anything relevant to your academic or professional life).
• Contact details for two references will be asked at a later stage of the process (contact details only - no reference letters).

You can address your application to Francesco Lombardi.