Dr Priti Parikh joins the project as a Research Associate at Imperial College Business School. Her PhD involved interviewing over 700 people in slums of India and townships of South Africa. She is an entrepreneur, starting her own company Development Vision 2o2o specializing in consultancy for development projects. She also features in a graphic novel created to encourage young women into engineering!

University of Southampton Researcher Hildah Essendi, in conjunction with Energy for Development partners AFIDEP, have carried out over 30 hours of focus group discussions and individual interviews with villagers in Kenya. The purpose was to understand the challenges that people face in terms of livelihood, education and health and how these relate to energy. The responses will provide the foundations for a quantitative baseline survey in 2011, prior to implementation of decentralized renewable electricity in the villages.

Professor Gerry George organized a one-day conference held at Imperial College to address social and economic development issues in 'Energy and Environment.' The conference featured high profile speakers such as Chief Scientific Officer for the UK Government, Sir John Beddington (pictured opposite with Prof George).
view full article

Researchers from the Energy for Development consortium were invited to attend the seminar by the UK Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology. An outline was presented of the different elements of the recently-started "Replication of Rural Decentralised off-grid Electricity Generation through Technology and Business Innovation” project, funded by EPSRC.
Go to POST web site

A consortium led by researchers at the University of Southampton's Schools of Civil Engineering and the Environment and Social Sciences has been awarded funding of £2.6 million to develop sustainable off-grid electricity supply systems in rural Africa.
view full article