Maria Xylia

Dr. Maria Xylia is a researcher in sustainable energy and transport transitions, focusing on how electrification, digitalisation, and equity aspects can be integrated into energy and mobility planning. She is a Senior Research Fellow at SEI at SEI Headquarters – Energy and Industry Transitions team and lead of SEI’s cross‑centre Sustainable Transport programme (One SEI), coordinating research and engagement on just and fossil-free mobility systems.

Maria currently leads research initiatives such as JUSTIT (Just Swedish Transport Industry Transitions) and ResPT (Resilient Public Transport). Previously, she co-led the Gridless Solutions initiative and led projects such as Laddinfra Pro on charging infrastructure needs. She has also contributed to projects including FFWS on governing the transition to a fossil-free welfare society, LANDMARC exploring the potential of land-based mitigation technologies and practices, and projects exploring water’s role in the fossil-free transition.

She is responsible for SEI’s role as regional partner for Sweden to the Clean Energy for EU islands Secretariat supported by DG ENER. Maria is also active within SEI’s Strategic Policy Engagement track on EU issues. 

Her work combines energy system modelling, policy analysis, and stakeholder engagement, and she has published on topics such as charging infrastructure equity, vehicle‑to‑grid solutions, and resilience in electrified transport. Her research is used to inform decision‑making in Sweden, the EU, and internationally.

Maria previously worked as a senior energy systems advisor at Sweco (Sweden) and renewable energy consultant at KGS Development (Greece). She is affiliated faculty at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, where she supervises master’s and doctoral students. She holds a PhD on strategic charging infrastructure planning and a Licentiate on energy efficieny policies from KTH, an MSc in Sustainable Energy Engineering from KTH, and a Dipl. Ing. in Mechanical Engineering from University of Patras.