Professor Sara Walker SFHEA

Professor Sara Walker

School of Chemical Engineering
Professor of Energy

Contact details

Address
Birmingham Energy Institute
School of Chemical Engineering
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Sara Walker is Professor of Energy and Co-Director of the Birmingham Energy Institute.

Her work has a focus on energy transitions, and whole energy systems, with an interest in building energy performance and hydrogen integration into energy systems.

She is Director of the UKRI Hub on Hydrogen Integration for Accelerated Energy Transitions (HI-ACT) and Co-Director of the UKRI Energy Demand Research Centre (EDRC).

Sara also contributes to the wider energy community through roles on the UKRI Strategic Advisory Committee on Energy and Decarbonisation, the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC) Advisory Board, and the UK Carbon Capture and Storage Research Centre (UKCCSRC) Advisory Board.

Qualifications

  • PhD Energy, 2003, De Montfort University
  • MSc Environmental Science (Distinction), 1994, Nottingham University
  • PGCE Secondary, 1992, Leicester University
  • BSc (Hons) Physics (2i), 1991, Leicester University

Teaching

Having just joined University of Birmingham, teaching duties are not yet confirmed but likely to include renewable energy technologies and policy.

Other activities

  • Member of UKRI Strategic Advisory Committee on Energy and Decarbonisation
  • Member of UK Energy Research Centre Advisory Board
  • Member of UK Carbon Capture and Storage Research Centre Advisory Board
  • Former member of UKRI ReFLEX Advisory Board
  • Former chair of the Borderlands Energy Masterplanning Committee
  • Advisor to the (2021) Citizens Climate Assembly Committee for the North of Tyne Combined Authority
  • Former member of North East Climate Coalition Indicators Working Group

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Joseph, A, Allahham, A & Walker, SL 2025, 'Investment decisions in a liberalised energy market with generation and hydrogen-based vector coupling storage in Integrated Energy System: A game-theoretic model-based approach', International Journal of Electrical Power and Energy Systems, vol. 166, 110518. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijepes.2025.110518

Khalil, M, Akhlaghi, YG, Ben, H, Royapoor, M & Walker, S 2025, 'Predicting the impact of climate change on building energy consumption by using data-driven approaches', Proceedings of Institution of Civil Engineers: Energy, vol. 178, no. 2, pp. 61-76. https://doi.org/10.1680/jener.24.00027

Nikkhah, S, Allahham, A, Alahyari, A, Patsios, C, Taylor, PC, Walker, SL & Giaouris, D 2024, 'Building-to-building energy trading under the influence of occupant comfort', International Journal of Electrical Power and Energy Systems, vol. 159, 110041. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijepes.2024.110041

Domingo, D, Royapoor, M, Du, H, Boranian, A, Walker, S & Goldstein, M 2024, 'Calibration under Uncertainty Using Bayesian Emulation and History Matching: Methods and Illustration on a Building Energy Model', Energies, vol. 17, no. 16, 4014. https://doi.org/10.3390/en17164014

Ben, H, Brown, CS, Kolo, I, Falcone, G & Walker, S 2024, 'Decarbonising well-insulated buildings in a warming climate: The case of adaptive thermal comfort with geothermal space heating', Energy and Buildings, vol. 319, 114466. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2024.114466

Sarhan, A, Ramachandaramurthy, VK, Sin, TC, Walker, SL, Salman, B & Padmanaban, S 2023, 'Assessment of Spatial and Temporal Modeling on Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Electricity Generation', IEEE Access, vol. 11, pp. 97478-97492. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2023.3258923

Deakin, M, Sarantakos, I, Greenwood, D, Bialek, J, Taylor, PC & Walker, S 2023, 'Comparative analysis of services from soft open points using cost–benefit analysis', Applied Energy, vol. 333, 120618. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2022.120618

Allahham, A, Greenwood, D, Patsios, C, Walker, SL & Taylor, P 2023, 'Primary frequency response from hydrogen-based bidirectional vector coupling storage: modelling and demonstration using power-hardware-in-the-loop simulation', Frontiers in Energy Research, vol. 11, 1217070. https://doi.org/10.3389/fenrg.2023.1217070

Conference article

Zografou-Barredo, N-M, Walker, SL, Withers, J & Sellami, N (ed.) 2024, 'Resilience Assessment of Offshore Wind-to-Hydrogen Systems', Engineering Proceedings, vol. 71, no. 1, 6. https://doi.org/10.3390/engproc2024071006

Ben, H, Walker, S, Brown, C, Kolo, I & Falcone, G 2023, 'Decarbonising heating and cooling using temperature setback and geothermal energy', Journal of Physics: Conference Series, vol. 2600, no. 2, 022015. https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/2600/2/022015

Ben, H & Walker, S 2023, 'Integrated thermal strategies for UK non-domestic building energy demand', Building Simulation Conference Proceedings, vol. 18, pp. 2940-2947. https://doi.org/10.26868/25222708.2023.1571

Conference contribution

Khalil, M, Stephen McGough, A, Kazmi, H & Walker, S 2024, The Forecastability of Underlying Building Electricity Demand from Time Series Data. in J He, T Palpanas, X Hu, A Cuzzocrea, D Dou, D Slezak, W Wang, A Gruca, JC-W Lin & R Agrawal (eds), 2023 IEEE International Conference on Big Data (BigData). Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), pp. 3785-3793, 2023 IEEE International Conference on Big Data, BigData 2023, Sorrento, Italy, 15/12/23. https://doi.org/10.1109/BigData59044.2023.10386693

Khalil, M, McGough, AS, Kazmi, H & Walker, S 2023, A Global Data-driven Forecasting Approach for Buildings Energy Demand Prediction. in 2023 IEEE 6th International Conference on Big Data and Artificial Intelligence (BDAI). International Conference on Big Data and Artificial Intelligence (BDAI), IEEE, pp. 50-55, 6th International Conference on Big Data and Artificial Intelligence, BDAI 2023, Haining, China, 7/07/23. https://doi.org/10.1109/BDAI59165.2023.10256707

Review article

Zhang, T, Qadrdan, M, Wu, J, Couraud, B, Stringer, M, Walker, S, Hawkes, A, Allahham, A, Flynn, D, Pudjianto, D, Dodds, P & Strbac, G 2025, 'A systematic review of modelling methods for studying the integration of hydrogen into energy systems', Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, vol. 208, 114964. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2024.114964

Roslan, MF, Satpathy, PR, Prasankumar, T, Ramachandaramurthy, VK, Mansor, M & Walker, SL 2025, 'Second-life battery energy storage system for energy sustainability: Recent advancements, key takeaways and future perspectives', Journal of Energy Storage, vol. 123, 116808. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.est.2025.116808

View all publications in research portal