Christian’s research focuses on understanding the role of energy systems in rural community development. He also studies how lack of information impacts community perceptions of development interventions, and ultimately their efficacy.
Christian Casillas has worked on the study, design, and implementation of energy efficiency projects and isolated diesel, photovoltaic, biomass, and wind systems in the US, Africa, and Latin America. Since 2006 he has served as an advisor to the non-profit blueEnergy, which builds and installs wind and photovoltaic energy systems for indigenous communities on the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua. In 2009 he participated in the technical analysis of the potential for integrating renewable energy systems into remote diesel grids for Colombia’s civil aviation agency.
Christian holds a bachelor’s degree in environmental engineering from Harvard University, a master’s in Applied and Computational Mathematics from Johns Hopkins University, and a master’s in Energy and Resources from UC Berkeley, where he is currently a PhD candidate.