Steven Connors

​Regional Energy Alternatives Director
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Email: connorsr@mit.edu

Stephen Connors directs the Analysis Group for Regional Energy Alternatives (AGREA) at the M.I.T. Energy Initiative. Since the late 1980s, AGREA has conducted research on the transformation of local and regional energy infrastructures to identify robust, cost-effective and environmentally responsible strategies. Various projects in the United States, Europe, China, Mexico and elsewhere have focused on the cost and emissions benefits of transformative energy technologies including high penetration renewable energy, smart grids including energy storage, smart end-uses, and sustainable mobility.



AGREA is particularly focused on the the “situational” aspects of future energy options, and how global technology companies partner with businesses and government on local and regional scales to rapidly deploy clean energy technologies. Current research looks at the integration and deployment of technologies locally, most notably through the MIT-Portugal Program's Green Islands Project, focused on the Azores in the mid-Atlantic, and the KACST-Center for Complex Engineering Systems (CCES) Integrated Energy Decision Support System (IEDSS) project.

AGREA’s scenario analysis approach is being applied within IEDSS to the evaluate Saudi Arabia’s electric sector options. An integrated modeling platform for detailed scenarios will address the Kingdom’s long-term challenges and opportunities including the introduction of solar and nuclear generation, advanced fossil generation, and energy efficiency against a background of growing and shifting needs for electricity, including large seasonal variations in electricity demand.

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In addition to AGREA research activities, Mr. Connors is active in many academic, educational and advisory areas, including being a founding board member of the U.S. Offshore Wind Collaborative, and a reviewer for numerous scientific journals including Wind Engineering. For the last several years, Mr. Connors has also been an advisor, reviewer, and judge to the New England Clean Energy Council, the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, MIT's Deshpande Center, and the MIT Clean Energy Prize, and is a resource to Boston's emerging clean energy cluster. Mr. Connors is the former head of the MIT Energy Laboratory's Electric Utility Program, and holds two degrees from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst (Mechanical Engineering and Applied Anthropology), as well as a Masters from M.I.T. in Technology and Policy. Between his two degrees from UMass, Stephen was a Peace Corps volunteer in Benin, West Africa working on the design and testing of wood conserving cookstoves.