What questions does the typical fifteen-year-old city Malaysian ask? ‘Should I look for a job this school holiday?’ ‘What do I want to do in the future? Go into business or work for someone?’ ‘Should I pick the science or art stream for school next year?’ ‘Should I continue my tertiary education locally or overseas?’ …
Opportunities in Bario made me want to come home to Malaysia Read More »
This policy brief summarises the findings and recommendations arising from a 15 month programme of engagement in East Africa, commencing in June 2014, undertaken by the Smart Villages Initiative to identify the barriers to off-grid sustainable energy access for development in rural communities and to gather views on how those barriers can be overcome. It …
BR7: Lessons learned from the Smart Villages Engagement Programme in East Africa Read More »
The Smart Villages Initiative held its second major international workshop in Kuching, then capital city of Sarawak, Malaysia in January 2015. The workshop was the outcome of a collaboration between the Smart Villages Initiative, Akademi Sains Malaysia (the Malaysian Academy of Sciences) and Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS). It brought together a diverse group of around …
BR6: Findings from the Kuching Smart Villages Workshop Read More »
Opinion pieces from experts tackling the idea of energy as a catalyst for sustainable development – health, food security, education gender equality, governance, security and employment. Smart Villages: New Thinking for off-grid communities worldwide comprises 16 essays written by scientists and leading thinkers from around the world. 1.3 billion people worldwide still lack access to …
Book of collected essays from world experts released Read More »
[:en]Smart Villages presents 16 essays by leading scientists and thinkers, providing policy makers, donors and development agencies concerned with rural energy access with new insights on the barriers to energy access in villages in developing countries – technological, financial and political – and explores opportunities and efforts to overcome them. The book describes the personal …
Nepal’s energy situation reflects its challenging terrain (over 75% mountainous) and very low income levels (UNDP, 2013). About 25% of Nepal’s 26.5 million people live below the poverty line, which varies by region but averaged 19,261 NPR per year (or about USD 0.75 per day) in FY 2010/2011 (Central Bureau of Satistics, 2012). The nation …
Energy for off-grid villages in Nepal and the role of mini-grids Read More »
The Smart Villages Initiative together with its local partner, Practical Action Consulting South Asia, held a workshop in Kathmandu on 10th April 2015 to consider off-grid energy systems in Nepal. The workshop focused on Nepal’s substantial experience of micro/mini-hydro schemes, and on initiatives to stimulate productive enterprises enabled by the availability of sustainable electricity supplies. …
BR3: Findings from the Nepal Smart Villages Workshop Read More »
Off-grid renewable energy systems are expanding rapidly on the ground to service the needs of more than one billion people worldwide who lack access to electricity. Change is driven by declining costs and increasing performance for small hydro installations, solar photovoltaics (PV) and wind turbines, as well improved technologies for electricity storage and control. However, …
Smart Villages and Practical Action Consulting off-grid village energy workshop in Nepal highlights key role of mini-hydro schemes In the latest of a series of workshops across the SE Asia region, the Smart Villages Initiative and Practical Action Consulting brought together a diverse cross-section of participants in the Nepali off-grid energy sector. The Smart Villages …
Off-grid village energy workshop in Nepal highlights key role of mini-hydro schemes Read More »
The Smart Villages Energy Innovation Challenge, launching today, challenges young East African entrepreneurs to form teams and come up with imaginative ways of distributing or implementing novel or existing energy technologies for off-grid villages. Each team should include one engineer or scientist. The teams with the best entries will win a spot in the Cambridge …
Innovation competitions for new technologies and business models are one tool used by policy makers in a range of contexts and countries to help businesses in new fields overcome practical barriers blocking progress between successful pilots and commercialisation. This brief note discusses competitions relevant to African off-grid energy and how they could be designed and …
BR2: The role of innovation competitions for off-grid energy in Africa Read More »
This infographic summarises the requirement for and the challenges to energy access across the ASEAN region (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore , Thailand, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar (Burma) and Vietnam). The ASEAN region is now the engine of the global economy. Its spectacular growth over the past two decades has lifted hundreds of millions of people out …
Claudia Canales, a Smart Village Project leader describes her visit to the remote community of Amaguaya, recently in receipt of energy from a newly constructed micro-hydro plant. The visit was in preparation for a Workshop to be held in the Bolivia later this year – ed. I was fortunate to arrive in Bolivia a few days earlier than the rest of …
A long climb to energy access: an off-grid success story Read More »
This note provides a summary of the workshop’s findings and recommendations for policy makers. A more detailed report of the workshop, together with copies of the presentations made at the workshop can be found here. Key points 1.3 billion people worldwide have no access to electricity. 3 billion people are still cooking with dangerous and inefficient stoves. Policy …
BR1: Findings from the Arusha Smart Villages workshop Read More »