From education to healthcare, food systems and more, energy is crucial to the efficient operations of various sectors globally and, most importantly, the livelihoods and wellbeing of billions of people. However, at the current pace, 660 million people around the world will still lack access to electricity by 2030.
Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7 calls for a global effort to achieve universal access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy worldwide. Engineering can advance progress in developing the innovative solutions and technology needed to reach these targets and to ensure a just energy transition.
Case study
Leveraging modern technologies to ensure access to reliable electricity
In South Africa, many rural communities do not have access to the main electricity networks. Those that are connected often experience unstable and unreliable supply with regular power outages.
With funding from the Frontiers programme, Philipp Theis’ STARENA project aims to leverage current energy developments by incorporating new technologies in solar energy generation and rural grid connection projects.
Through stakeholder workshops and field measurement campaigns, the project will develop strategies to enable the use of modern technologies in implementing, leveraging and sustaining renewable energy and grid reinforcement projects. This will benefit rural communities and project developers in South Africa.
Insights
Innovating for sustainable energy transitions
Access to affordable energy is essential to livelihoods around the world, yet energy consumption contributes significantly to climate change, accounting for an estimated 60% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Solutions for affordable and clean energy are urgently needed. Participants of the Frontiers and Engineering X ‘Systems approaches in a just energy transition for equitable access’ symposium came together to discuss key considerations in innovating towards sustainable energy transitions globally. In the discussions, the Frontiers community raised key insights on approaches that can help facilitate a just energy transition globally:
“Driving this mission means going through the levels of technical readiness, but the final level of research is living labs – working directly with communities and learning about real environments even if it is challenging.” – Professor Alexánder Gómez Mejía, Universidad Nacional de Colombia
- Building trust with communities is key to ensuring the long-term uptake of solutions in just energy transitions. Technologies must be suited to a community’s capacities and need to be effective. At the same time, community capacities must be developed to ensure project sustainability.
- Governance, stakeholder incentives and power dynamics must be considered when addressing a complex challenge. A systems approach to governance can protect communities from marginalisation and displacement.
- Putting a mission at the centre of policy can help increase inclusion and ensure intersectoral collaboration. Systems approaches can help create open channels for communication across collaborators.
- New technologies should not create more waste but rather can employ circularity and make waste a resource to be used. New projects must be designed with the future in mind, planning for what happens when a piece of technology comes to its end of life.
SDG 7 in action
Energy communities are groups of citizens that cooperate around energy for their community. The development of these groups can help reduce energy consumption and increase the use of renewables; create savings for users and investment opportunities for the community; and provide local employment while giving the community ownership over energy systems.
In his keynote at the Frontiers Engineering X symposium, Carlos Enrique Vélez Restrepo shared his experiences collaborating with public and private sector stakeholders to create energy communities for Comuna El Salvador in Medellín. The project connected 24 households to energy through solar panels on their rooftops and an existing grid to distribute the energy. The energy produced would then be logged in a digital platform and each family would receive tokens for the amount of energy produced. Then, they could use the tokens to pay their bills.
A key learning in this project was that ensuring that projects are economically feasible and not reliant on high-priced, inaccessible tools and equipment is fundamental. At the same time, communities must be given the necessary training and capacity building to maintain new technologies after researchers leave. The Comuna El Salvador project improved awareness of sustainable energy consumption among community residents, helping them save an average of 37% on their bills.
Resources
Watch the Frontiers community’s reflection on the challenges in energy systems and existing opportunities to drive sustainable energy transitions globally.
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