Erkinai Derkenbaeva is an energy transition researcher at the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions.

Her work focuses on urban energy transition, particularly on developing Positive Energy Districts. Her expertise and research interests include households’ technology adoption decision-making, energy transition business models, energy poverty and justice, energy communities, electric mobility, agent-based modeling, and complex adaptive systems. 

In her Ph.D. work (obtained in 2023 at Wageningen University in the Netherlands), she investigated potential pathways toward urban energy transition by 2050, accounting for area contextual factors and outlining tailored policies for the city of Amsterdam and the Netherlands in general.

Currently, Erkinai is focusing on spatial analysis of solar panel adoption dynamics in Amsterdam and exploring the scalability of Positive Energy Districts.