I have been lucky with my supervisors and collaborators who I am glad to thank. Firstly, I would like to thank Prof. Pedro Carvalho for the support, ideas, dedication, flexibility, and encouragement that contributed to every part of this work. I would like to also thank Prof. Carlos Silva for the encouragement and flexibility shown with me throughout this journey as well as his continuous support in allowing me to pursue my diverse interests.Next, I would like to thank Dr. Audun Botterud for the encouragement, ideas shared, detailed and diligent input, and hosting me in such a friendly and supportive manner at the MIT, an experience from which I gained a lot. I would like to thank my collaborators Felix Diawuo and Diana Neves for the interesting research topics that kept me distracted and interested and the friendship provided along the way. I would also like to thank Patricia Baptista for the advice and input provided to Felix and myself. I would like to thank my InnoEnergy Lisboa colleagues Sonia, Kaisa, Julia, and Eduardo for the support, distraction, and friendship as well as the many others from the MIT Portugal Program, IN+, and InnoEnergy.Perhaps most importantly, I wish to thank my partner, Filipa de Almeida, without whom I surely would not have begun, let alone completed, this thesis. Her love and support in this endeavour, as in all things, makes anything possible. I also cannot thank enough my parents for their support in all forms on which I have always been so fortunate to be able to rely on. I am forever grateful for the love, sacrifice, guidance, proof-reading, and upbringing they provided me that has allowed me to chase my interests around the world, any and all achievements are always entirely due to them.