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Energy and Development Research: Renewables and Energy Poverty in Central America

Energy and Development Research: Renewables and Energy Poverty in Central America. Ed Brown Department of Geography/Sustainability Research School Loughborough University. Outline. Geography, Geographers and Energy Research.

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Energy and Development Research: Renewables and Energy Poverty in Central America

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  1. Energy and Development Research: Renewables and Energy Poverty in Central America Ed Brown Department of Geography/Sustainability Research School Loughborough University

  2. Outline • Geography, Geographers and Energy Research. • Renewable Energy Technologies and Energy Poverty in Central America. • Building Cross-Disciplinary and Cross-Sectoral Communities in Energy and Development Research.

  3. 1. Geography, Geographers and Energy Research • RGS Energy Geographies Working Group (2011) “Energy transition, security, infrastructure and governance are fundamentally spatial and scalar concerns.” • Since around 2007 we’ve been developing a small research group around the Geographies of Energy Policy within a ‘Development’ context. • Perhaps three key areas: • Broader context of Global Energy Politics. The role of the World Bank (recent Energy review); continuing debate over conditionality and energy privatization; corruption in the energy sector; global production networks of energy technologies; international funding and ‘the latest big thing’ etc. • National/Regional level governance of the renewable energy sector. Role of key stakeholders, alternative business models, NGO-ization etc. • Household and community-level explorations. Medium and longer-term impacts of new energy technologies; desires/wants/needs aspirations; ‘unintended’ social consequences.

  4. 2. Exploring these themes in The Central American context

  5. Points arising from the Workshops • The potential role of Municipalities as promoters of energy alternatives (demonstration projects, direct funding, cataloguing energy needs). • The Non-Technical Barriers facing energy sector SMEs: legal and regulatory frameworks; anti-SME market rules; discriminatory banking relations; high commercial risks; cultural perceptions of off-grid technologies. • The potential employment creation potential of small-scale renewables. • Relationship with grid production

  6. Post-Project Activities • E.on/LCC PV project with Energy Central partners (includes training and participant surveys) • Re-orientating existing work with UCA on corruption towards the energy sector. • PhD Project (Dani Gent) on the governance of PV in Nicaragua. • Dani Gent/UCA consultancy with GIZ on impacts/sustainability of previous projects.

  7. Post-Project Activities • E.on/LCC PV project with Energy Central partners (includes training and participant surveys) • Re-orientating existing work with UCA on corruption towards the energy sector. • PhD Project (Dani Gent) on the governance of PV in Nicaragua. • Dani Gent/UCA consultancy with GIZ on impacts/sustainability of previous projects.

  8. Post-Project Activities • E.on/LCC PV project with Energy Central partners (includes training and participant surveys) • Re-orientating existing work with UCA on corruption towards the energy sector. • PhD Project (Dani Gent) on the governance of PV in Nicaragua. • Dani Gent/UCA consultancy with GIZ on impacts/sustainability of previous projects.

  9. Consultancy study: sustainability and technical diagnostic of SHS installed in 2006/2007 in the Estelí region of north-western Nicaragua • EnDev aims to provide 10 million people with access to modern energy services by 2015 • EnDev Nicaragua includes: grid extensions, implementation of solar home systems (SHS) and improved cooking technologies • Study will : • conduct a technical diagnostic of the current state of systems; • determine the sustainability of the model; identifying technical and non-technical barriers to long term sustainability; • determine the impacts on everyday lives of users, including an estimation of the changes in family energy bills.

  10. 3. Building Cross-Disciplinary and Cross-Sectoral Communities in Energy and Development Research.

  11. 3. Building Cross-Disciplinary and Cross-Sectoral Communities in Energy and Development Research. • Lessons from Energy Central • Struck by lack of connectivity in the academic worlds • Co-ordinated major UKERC/MEGS-funded Energy and Development Symposium in Loughborough, May 2010. • Development of new Energy and Development grouping within MEC. • DFID/DECC/RCUK interest in this area. • This summer MEC, Durham Energy Institute, UKERC and SPRU have been laying the foundations for nation-wide collaboration in this area.

  12. Thankyou

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