Charles Heaps
Charlie Heaps is the Energy Modeling Program Director at SEI-US and developer of LEAP, the Low Emissions Analysis Platform. From 2006 through 2014, he was also U.S. Centre Director.
LEAP, which Charlie has been developing since 1990, is a powerful, versatile software tool for integrated energy planning and climate change mitigation assessment. In 2014 alone, more than 2,000 people actively used the tool, and the LEAP online community, COMMEND , has grown to over 22,000 members in 191 countries.
Along with developing LEAP and managing COMMEND, Charlie works around the world conducting workshops, undertaking energy studies and providing training and assistance to users of LEAP.
Charlie has also developed a range of other software tools and websites for energy and environmental planning, including GreenTrips (a web-based tool for households to plan their transport emissions), and IDENTIFY (a spreadsheet-based tool for industrial climate mitigation project planning developed for UNIDO).
In addition, Charlie has been a major contributor to the development of other SEI software tools, including WEAP , REAP and PoleStar.
Charlie has a B.S. (first class) in energy studies from the University College of Swansea in Wales, and a Ph.D. in environmental technology from the Imperial College of Science and Technology in London.
Tellus Publications (Selected)
LEAP: Long-range Energy Alternatives Planning System User Guide
The Long-range Energy Alternatives Planning system (LEAP) is a scenario-based energy-environment modeling tool. Its scenarios are based on comprehensive accounting of how energy is consumed, converted, and produced in a given region or economy under a range of alternative assumptions on population, economic development, technology, price, and so on. With its flexible data structures, LEAP allows for analysis as rich in technological specification and end-use detail as the user chooses.
Turning the Corner on Global Warming Emissions: An Analysis of Ten Strategies for California, Oregon, and Washington
Michael Lazarus, Alison Bailie, William Dougherty, Charles Heaps
This report makes a compelling case that the West Coast states can significantly reduce their global warming emissions over the next fifteen years. By 2020, the ten strategies in this report would reduce global warming pollution by 200 million metric tons—26 percent below the emissions that would otherwise occur, and 1 percent below today’s levels. While these reductions are not nearly enough to stabilize the climate, the ten strategies would represent a significant down payment on deeper emissions reductions.
Characterization of Criteria Air Pollutant and Greenhouse Gas Emission Factors Associated with Energy Use in the USA: Sources, Assumptions, Methodology
William Dougherty, Alison Bailie, Steve Bernow, Rachel Cleetus, Charles Heaps, Benjamin Runkle
This report characterizes emission factors for both criteria air pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions for a variety of processes across the industrial, commercial, residential, transport, and electric sectors. This report is divided into two major parts, one for baseline-based emission factors and the other for measure-based emission factors. Baseline-based emission factors represent average sector-wide emission factors based on the existing and projected equipment vintage, and expected future emission regulations. Measure-based emission factors represent average lifetime emission factors for new technology. The sources, assumptions, and methodology used in characterizing these emission factors are included.
Sustainable Development in West Africa: Beginning the Process
Charles Heaps, Eric Kemp-Benedict, Paul Raskin, Y. Sokona, Susan Humphreys
The transition to sustainable forms of development will be a long and complex process. The objective of this project is to help launch that process in West Africa, focusing on the countries in the UEMOA region, the Union Économique et Monétaire Ouest-Africaine. The study is the first to assess current patterns of development and resource use in the region, with a view to evaluating the sustainability of current practices into the future.
Polestar: System Manual for Version 2000
Paul Raskin, Charles Heaps, Jack Sieber, Eric Kemp-Benedict
The PoleStar System provides a flexible and user-friendly framework for building and assessing alternative development scenarios at regional, national, and global scales. It is an adaptable accounting and model-building framework designed to assist the analyst engaged in sustainability studies—not a rigid model reflecting one particular approach to environment and development interactions. With PoleStar, analysts can customize data structures, time horizons, and spatial boundaries—all of which can be expanded or altered easily. They can also introduce new variables, indicators and relationships to match their needs. The system can synthesize information generated from formal models, existing studies, or any other sources upon which the user wishes to draw.