Profile
Dr Donal Brown is a senior researcher in energy policy and political economy specialising in the governance and financing of the low-carbon transition. His work focuses on electricity market reform, energy demand reduction, and the delivery of large-scale housing retrofit programmes. He joins the Environmental Change Institute at the University of Oxford following roles at the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU) at the University of Sussex, where he worked on the political economy of net zero and the institutional challenges of decarbonising the UK energy system.
Donal’s research examines how the structure of energy markets, ownership models, and financial institutions shape the speed, cost and legitimacy of the energy transition. His work spans electricity market design, the financing of renewable energy infrastructure, and the institutional frameworks required to deliver large-scale retrofit of existing housing. Much of his recent work explores how alternative market and governance arrangements could reduce the cost of decarbonisation while improving energy security and public legitimacy.
Before joining Oxford, Donal was a Research Fellow at SPRU, where he contributed to major UK and European research programmes on energy demand and low-carbon innovation. He has published widely on topics including residential retrofit business models, community and prosumer energy systems, and the governance of decentralised energy transitions. His academic work spans energy policy, ecological economics and the political economy of sustainability, and has received over a thousand citations.
Alongside his academic work, Donal has extensive experience engaging with policy and practice. He has advised government and political organisations on energy and housing policy, including work with the Welsh Government and contributions to national policy debates on the cost of living and the energy transition. He has also played an active role in the development of community-led retrofit delivery models and currently chairs the board of the retrofit cooperative RetrofitWorks.
Donal’s research is strongly interdisciplinary and policy-focused. His work brings together insights from economics, innovation studies, political economy and environmental policy to understand how institutional change can accelerate decarbonisation while reducing costs for households.
He holds a First-Class BSc in Environmental Science, an MSc with Distinction in Climate Change and Policy, and a PhD from SPRU at the University of Sussex on the financing and business models for domestic energy retrofit.