Portrait of Mark Thurber

Mark C. Thurber, PhD

  • Associate Director for Research at PESD
  • Social Science Research Scholar

Program on Energy and Sustainable Development
616 Jane Stanford Way
Encina Hall East, Rm E412
Stanford, CA 94305

(650) 724-9709 (voice)
(650) 724-1717 (fax)

Biography

Mark C. Thurber is Associate Director of the Program on Energy and Sustainable Development (PESD) at Stanford University, where he studies and teaches about energy and environmental markets and policy. Dr. Thurber has written and edited books and articles on topics including global fossil fuel markets, climate policy, integration of renewable energy into electricity markets, and provision of energy services to low-income populations.

Dr. Thurber co-edited and contributed to Oil and Governance: State-owned Enterprises and the World Energy Supply  (Cambridge University Press, 2012) and The Global Coal Market: Supplying the Major Fuel for Emerging Economies (Cambridge University Press, 2015). He is the author of Coal (Polity Press, 2019) about why coal has thus far remained the preeminent fuel for electricity generation around the world despite its negative impacts on local air quality and the global climate.

Dr. Thurber teaches a course on energy markets and policy at Stanford, in which he runs a game-based simulation of electricity, carbon, and renewable energy markets. With Dr. Frank Wolak, he also conducts game-based workshops for policymakers and regulators. These workshops explore timely policy topics including how to ensure resource adequacy in a world with very high shares of renewable energy generation.

Dr. Thurber has previous experience working in high-tech industry. From 2003-2005, he was an engineering manager at a plant in Guadalajara, México that manufactured hard disk drive heads. He holds a Ph.D. from Stanford University and a B.S.E. from Princeton University.

publications

Journal Articles
August 2022

Game-based investigation of standardized forward contracting for long-term resource adequacy

Author(s)
cover link Game-based investigation of standardized forward contracting for long-term resource adequacy
Working Papers
April 2022

Game-based investigation of standardized forward contracting for long-term resource adequacy

Author(s)
cover link Game-based investigation of standardized forward contracting for long-term resource adequacy
Journal Articles
July 2021

Wind and solar in Africa need grids to match

Author(s)
cover link Wind and solar in Africa need grids to match

In The News

Workshop group with CPUC seal
News

PESD Policy Engagement: Protecting Ratepayers in a High-Renewables Future

Frank Wolak and Mark Thurber conduct game-based workshop with the California Public Utilities Commission Public Advocates Office
cover link PESD Policy Engagement: Protecting Ratepayers in a High-Renewables Future
Frank Wolak points to a graph on a screen in front of an audience seated around tables
News

Texas regulators explore market designs for a high-renewables electricity system

cover link Texas regulators explore market designs for a high-renewables electricity system
Power lines in front of orange sky
News

Why "best practices" aren't always best in emerging energy markets

cover link Why "best practices" aren't always best in emerging energy markets