RAEL researchers will work with GRID Alter­na­tives staff and part­ners to study off-grid solar projects by GRID Alter­na­tives in Nicaragua, Nepal, and trib­al com­mu­ni­ties in the Unit­ed States. The research will eval­u­ate project mod­els and out­comes to inform ener­gy access prac­tices world­wide. RAEL is part of UC Berkeley’s Ener­gy and Resources Group and was found­ed by Pro­fes­sor Dan Kam­men with a mis­sion to design and imple­ment envi­ron­men­tal­ly sus­tain­able devel­op­ment in cul­tur­al­ly and social­ly appro­pri­ate ways. The GRID-RAEL part­ner­ship builds on more than four years of infor­mal col­lab­o­ra­tion with UC Berke­ley stu­dents inter­est­ed in renew­able energy.

Through its inter­na­tion­al pro­gram, GRID Alter­na­tives has installed 70 solar PV sys­tems in Nicaragua to-date, and con­tin­ues to ensure the sys­tems remain online and pro­vide long-term ben­e­fits to res­i­dents. GRID Alter­na­tives is also devel­op­ing a 16-kilo­watt solar-pow­ered micro­grid project in Dhapchung, Nepal to pro­vide elec­tric­i­ty to the community’s school, 40 fam­i­lies, and sev­er­al busi­ness­es to aid in earth­quake recov­ery and cre­ate a sus­tain­able economy.

“GRID’s vol­un­teer-based mod­el has long pro­vid­ed a way for peo­ple inter­est­ed in renew­able ener­gy work–from indus­try rep­re­sen­ta­tives to aca­d­e­mics and the gen­er­al public–to get hands-on with solar tech­nol­o­gy and see how it makes a dif­fer­ence for under­served com­mu­ni­ties,” said GRID Alter­na­tives co-founder and CEO Eri­ca Mack­ie. “This part­ner­ship will help us go a step fur­ther and con­tribute to a glob­al body of knowl­edge around how to max­i­mize impact and ensure that projects are sus­tain­able for the long term.”

The part­ner­ship will pro­vide direct and indi­rect ben­e­fits through GRID Alter­na­tives’ ener­gy access projects and help expand off-grid solar inter­na­tion­al­ly. RAEL researchers will par­tic­i­pate in and have access to ben­e­fi­cia­ries of GRID Alter­na­tives’ projects, and RAEL will work with GRID to secure fund­ing for research projects as appro­pri­ate. RAEL will con­duct sys­tem mod­el­ing and design research, tech­ni­cal poten­tial analy­sis, qual­i­ta­tive sur­veys, and impact analy­sis with a focus on social and cul­tur­al issues.

Dr. Kam­men is a mem­ber of GRID’s Nation­al Advi­so­ry Coun­cil, was recent­ly appoint­ed U.S. Sci­ence Envoy for the U.S. State Depart­ment, and has been a lead­ing voice in renew­able ener­gy deploy­ment globally.

“Get­ting elec­tric­i­ty to the 1.2 bil­lion peo­ple who still lack access is about more than cut­ting edge tech­nolo­gies. It’s about find­ing solu­tions that are cul­tur­al­ly, social­ly and eco­nom­i­cal­ly appro­pri­ate, and are real­ly solv­ing the prob­lem they are intend­ed to solve,” said Dr. Kam­men, “Part­ner­ing with orga­ni­za­tions like GRID doing this work on the ground is a great oppor­tu­ni­ty to study what’s work­ing and why, and get that infor­ma­tion to the peo­ple who can use it

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ABOUT GRID ALTERNATIVES

GRID Alter­na­tives is an inter­na­tion­al non­prof­it solar installer bring­ing clean ener­gy tech­nol­o­gy and job train­ing to low-income fam­i­lies and under­served com­mu­ni­ties through a net­work of com­mu­ni­ty part­ners, vol­un­teers, and phil­an­thropic sup­port­ers. GRID has installed more than 7,000 rooftop solar sys­tems with a com­bined installed capac­i­ty of near­ly 25MW, sav­ing $192 mil­lion in life­time elec­tric­i­ty costs, pre­vent­ing more than 537,000 tons of green­house gas emis­sions, and pro­vid­ing more than 27,000 peo­ple with solar train­ing. For more infor­ma­tion, vis­it www​.gri​dal​ter​na​tives​.org

ABOUT RAEL

Based at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­i­for­nia, Berke­ley, since 1999, RAEL has focused on sys­tems approach­es to fos­ter­ing sus­tain­able devel­op­ment at the house­hold, com­mu­ni­ty, and nation­al lev­els. With a mix­ture of stu­dents, post-doc­tor­al fel­lows and vis­it­ing schol­ars and prac­ti­tion­ers, RAEL is cur­rent­ly active in the Balka­ns, Chi­na, Cen­tral Amer­i­ca, East Africa, South­east Asia, across North Amer­i­ca in the design of tech­ni­cal and ana­lyt­ic approach­es to clean ener­gy sys­tems. For more infor­ma­tion see rael​.berke​ley​.edu.