Maxwell (“Max”) Brown started at NREL in late 2016 as an intern, signed on as research staff in 2017, and in 2020 became a Senior Energy Systems Modeler in the Economics and Forecasting Group within the Grid Planning and Analysis Center. His current research portfolio consists of general ReEDS development, expanding the temporal and spatial resolution of ReEDS, the linkage of ReEDS and USREP, as well as the development of SLiDE - an open-source CGE model written in Julia/JuMP. His expertise include: energy policy analysis, CGE modeling and calibration, supply chain modeling, and optimization and equilibrium modeling.

Research Interests

Optimization and modeling techniques

Economic impacts of energy sector transformations

Fuel and electricity market interactions

Consumer adoption of energy-efficient technologies

Education

Ph.D., Mineral and Energy Economics, Colorado School of Mines 

M.S., Resource Economics and Policy, University of Maine

B.S., Economics and Statistics, North Dakota State University

Certificate in Computer Engineering, North Dakota State College of Science

Professional Experience

HERE researcher, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (2012–2017)

Research Assistant, DOE Critical Materials Institute (2013–2017)

Research Assistant, Payne Institute for Earth Resources (2014–2017)

Research Assistant, The Energy Foundation (2010–2012)

Computer Technician, NDSU College of Engineering (2006–2010)

Featured Work

North American Energy System Responses to Natural Gas Price Shocks, Energy Policy (2021)

Electric Sector Impacts of Renewable Policy Coordination: A Multi-Model Study of the North American Energy System, Energy Policy (2020)

Nuclear Energy With Flexible Operation, High VRE, and Emission-Constrained Scenarios, NREL Technical Report (2020)

Improving Consistency Among Models of Overlapping Scope in Multi-Sector Studies: The Case of Electricity Capacity Expansion Scenarios, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews (2019)

Exploring the Impacts of a National U.S. CO2 Tax and Revenue Recycling Options with a Coupled Electricity-Economy Model, Climate Change Economics (2018)

Catching the PHEVer: Simulating Electric Vehicle Diffusion with an Agent-Based Mixed Logit Model of Vehicle Choice, Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulations (2013)