Dr. William (Bill) Lilley, Chief Research Officer joined RACE for 2030 in February 2023.

Bill is a proven multi-disciplinary leader with over 20 years' experience in research and industry. Bill delivered CSIRO’s ‘Intelligent Grid’ research program, which showcased the value of distributed energy for Australia. He was a principal advisor on the federal government’s ‘Smart Grid Smart City’ initiative which determined the cost-benefits of a commercial scale rollout of smart grid technologies and consumer applications in Australia. 

Bill spent the past decade working for Aramco in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and France. In KSA, he was instrumental in the development of a national energy strategy and its associated macroeconomic framework. Bill led the implementation of the strategy within the power and water sector including the development and application of integrated resource planning models.  

Recently Bill developed a detailed techno-economic framework for the development of hydrogen and low carbon fuels focusing on the integration of renewable energy. He also developed alternative futures models comparing various modes of decarbonisation in the transport and power sectors. These detailed models underpinned his advice on international policy development in low emission transport.

Bill’s early career focused on air quality modelling and emissions quantification. He has a PhD from the University of Newcastle titled: “Development of a high resolution chemically reactive near-field dispersion model for assessing the impact of motor vehicle emissions”.