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

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
Working Papers
May 2020

An Experimental Comparison of Carbon Pricing Under Uncertainty in Electricity Markets

Author(s)
cover link An Experimental Comparison of Carbon Pricing Under Uncertainty in Electricity Markets

In The News

getty poverty africa
News

Thurber co-authors paper on why wind and solar in Africa need better grids

cover link Thurber co-authors paper on why wind and solar in Africa need better grids
coal
News

Thurber: Phasing out coal-fired power in the US by 2030 is an achievable goal

cover link Thurber: Phasing out coal-fired power in the US by 2030 is an achievable goal
CPUC meeting
News

PESD/CPUC Impact Lab tackles resource adequacy in a high-renewables California

cover link PESD/CPUC Impact Lab tackles resource adequacy in a high-renewables California