About
About
Short bio
Mike Fell (Michael J. Fell) is a Principal Research Fellow at the UCL Energy Institute and a researcher co-investigator in the UKRI Energy Demand Research Centre. His research asks who is able to benefit from a flexible, low-carbon energy system, on what terms, and how developments in AI might come to affect this.
Elsewhere
I'm a Principal Research Fellow at the UCL Energy Institute, part of the Bartlett School of Environment, Energy and Resources, and a researcher co-investigator in the UKRI Energy Demand Research Centre, where I work in the flexibility theme.
My research is about the social side of energy demand flexibility. With Gareth Powells I co-developed the concepts of flexibility capital and flexibility justice. I've also worked on peer-to-peer and local energy markets and on the idea of energy services, and more recently on how AI agents might act for households in the energy system. I use and write about realist evidence synthesis and open research.
Before going into research I worked in publishing, latterly as energy commissioning editor at Earthscan. My PhD, at UCL, was on perceived control and the acceptability of domestic demand-side response.
Roles
- 2025 to now: Principal Research Fellow, UCL Energy Institute
- 2019 to 2025: Senior Research Fellow, UCL Energy Institute
- 2016 to 2019: Research Associate, UCL Energy Institute
- 2024 to 2025: Senior researcher, Nesta (part-time secondment)
- 2017 to 2018: Secondment to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
- 2013: POST fellowship, House of Commons Library
- 2012 to 2016: PhD, UCL
- 2004 to 2011: Earthscan, latterly energy commissioning editor
Research centres and programmes I've worked in: the Energy Demand Research Centre, EnergyREV, CREDS and the RCUK Centre for Energy Epidemiology.
Exhibitions, talks and press
- Grid Music in Electricity: The Spark of Life, Wellcome Collection, London, 2017, then Teylers Museum, Haarlem, and the Science and Industry Museum, Manchester
- The Mechanical Choir in Anamorphic Waves, Ugly Duck, London, 2019
- Watts the Deal? at the Manchester Science Festival, 2018
- Briefing MPs on realist approaches at Evidence Week in Parliament, 2023
- Energ'Ethic podcast, episode 19, 2022
- Zero Ambitions podcast, on energy research and pump:chic
- Canary Media, 2022, on heat pumps that look like George Clooney
Contact
Email is best: mike [at] mikefell.co.uk
If you're asking about a tape drawing, say which one and I'll tell you whether it's still available.
Older writing is on Medium.