Energizing Development: Scaling Decentralized Electricity Systems in East Africa
We would like to warmly thank Prof. Nathan Williams, Assistant Research Professor at Carnegie Mellon University, for his visit to the ISTP and his fascinating and insightful talk on decentralized energy systems in East Africa.
by Gian Luca Gehwolf
Prof. Williams’ research is focused on trying to understand how universal basic services and infrastructure can be provided in a sustainable manner, with a strong emphasis on the generation and supply of electricity. He emphasised that infrastructural systems are tightly connected to electricity: “Imagine you are a small-scale farmer in Rwanda, and you have access to electricity to increase your productivity. If you have no access to markets, transportation, communication infrastructure or financial services to allow to grow your agricultural business, the electricity is somewhat useless.”
In East Africa, where a lot of his work is focused and where Carnegie Mellon University has a campus (CMU Africa in Kigali, Rwanda), only ten percent of the population has access to electricity. Electrifying the rural population using the traditional approach, i.e., via the grid, would be very expensive and require a lot of time.Therefore, Prof. Williams focuses on mini-grid technology, which can provide electricity in remote places. There are, however, a lot of challenges regarding the lack of clear policies, access to finance, and thus, the perception of risk among investors in the off-grid sector. Prof. Williams tries to quantify the technical and financial risks of the mini-grid sector in order to find ways to mitigate these risks.
The ISTP would like to thank Prof. Williams for giving such interesting insight into the topic of energizing development and we hope to welcome him again at ETH Zurich in the near future!
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