Martha Hoffmann

In her doc­toral stud­ies in Ger­many, Martha is work­ing on the real­iza­tion of a socially just and accepted energy tran­si­tion. For this, she plans to add social and eco­log­i­cal aspects to the cur­rent tech­ni­cal and eco­nom­i­cal focus within energy tran­si­tion plan­ning processes. The devel­op­ment of an inte­grated energy sys­tem model will assess the impact of energy mar­ket reforms on com­mu­nity and house­hold level as well as their impli­ca­tions for dis­trib­u­tive jus­tice. Her inter­ests, broadly, encom­pass, energy jus­tice, the energy tran­si­tion, energy mod­el­ing, and Open Source meth­ods and strategies.

Her work is super­vised by Prof. Dr. Pao-​​Yu Oei from the Depart­ment of Energy and Envi­ron­men­tal Man­age­ment at Europa-​​Universität Flens­burg (EUF).

Martha wrote her mas­ters degree the­sis  at the TU Berlin in the research group Off-​​Grid Sys­tems at the Reiner Lemoine Insti­tut and devel­oped the sim­u­la­tion tool Off­grid­ders, which sizes elec­tri­fi­ca­tion options. Fol­low­ing  this, from 2019 to 2021, she worked as a researcher at the Reiner Lemoine Insti­tut and was respon­si­ble for the project man­age­ment within the scope of the H2020 research project E-​​LAND, in which RLI devel­ops and applies a sim­u­la­tion tool for sec­tor cou­pled energy sys­tems (Multi-​​Vector Sim­u­la­tor).

Martha’s fel­low­ship is financed through the C-​​BEAR+ project (link: https://reiner-lemoine–insti​tut​.de/​e​n​/​c​-​b​e​ar/) , funded by the Fed­eral Min­istry for Eco­nomic Affairs and Cli­mate Action of Germany.

She will be a vis­it­ing scholar at RAEL for Spring 2023

Con­tact: martha.​hoffmann@​rl-​stiftung.​de

Sam Miles

Sam Miles is a Ph.D. stu­dent in the Energy and Resources Group, and in the Renew­able and Appro­pri­ate Energy Lab at the Uni­ver­sity of Cal­i­for­nia, Berkeley.

His research focus is at the inter­sec­tion of the scal­a­bil­ity chal­lenge for elec­tric­ity mini-​​grids and the socio-​​economic char­ac­ter­is­tics of urban­iza­tion in Africa, par­tic­u­larly for the arti­sans and entre­pre­neurs who con­sti­tute the ‘pro­duc­tive’ users of such energy sys­tems. He will engage with these ques­tions as an INFEWS (Inno­va­tions at the Nexus of Food, Energy, and Water Sys­tems) NSF scholar.

Pre­vi­ous to life at ERG, Sam worked as a free­lance writer cov­er­ing tech­nol­ogy in emerg­ing mar­kets, an edu­ca­tor at the African Lead­er­ship Uni­ver­sity in Mau­ri­tius, and as an inter­na­tional devel­op­ment con­sul­tant based in West Africa. He holds an MA in Inter­na­tional Energy from Sci­ences Po — Paris and a BA in Ethics, Pol­i­tics, and Eco­nom­ics from Yale.

Annelise Gill-​​Wiehl

At ERG Annelise has con­tin­ued the study of com­mu­nity energy solu­tions, with both cook­ing and com­mu­nity exten­sion ser­vices focal areas for her ana­lytic and field studies.

Annelise Gill-​​Wiehl stud­ied envi­ron­men­tal engi­neer­ing and inter­na­tional devel­op­ment stud­ies at the Uni­ver­sity of Notre Dame.  There, she worked with the Keough School of Global Affairs’ Asso­ciate Dean for Pol­icy and Prac­tice, Sara Siev­ers, through the Kel­logg Inter­na­tional Schol­ars Pro­gram. They inves­ti­gated how to incor­po­rate the pref­er­en­tial option for the poor into pol­icy. Gill-Wiehl’s own research inves­ti­gates energy infra­struc­ture and the bar­ri­ers to tech­nol­ogy adop­tion. Gill-​​Wiehl and Pro­fes­sor Siev­ers piloted a Com­mu­nity Tech­nol­ogy Pro­gram in Shi­rati, Tan­za­nia through a Kel­logg Research Grant.

While an under­grad­u­ate she interned for the Foun­da­tion of Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment in Masaka, Uganda. Addi­tion­ally, Gill-​​Wiehl con­ducted roughly 200 house­hold energy sur­veys through an Expe­ri­enc­ing the World Fel­low­ship to inves­ti­gate energy infra­struc­ture in Shi­rati. Her research inter­ests are at the inter­sec­tion of engi­neer­ing and pol­icy in the East African con­text. She hopes to pur­sue a PhD to fur­ther inves­ti­gate these issues.

The­sis Title: Pilot of Com­mu­nity Tech­nol­ogy Work­ers in Shi­rati, Tanzania

Raghavan, Shuba

Shuba is the co-​​director of the Cal­i­for­nia Energy Com­mis­sion spon­sored project

“ Engag­ing Com­mu­ni­ties in the Design of  Sus­tain­able Energy and Local­ized Futures  (SELF)”

Among her many pub­li­ca­tions are a num­ber that addresses the energy-​​access-​​affordability-​​climate nexus, including:

1. The Cal­i­for­nia Demand Response: Poten­tial Study, Phase 3; Brian F.Gerke,Giulia Gallo,Sarah J. Smith, Jingjing Liu, Peter Alstone, Shuba V. Ragha­van, Peter Schwartz, Mary Ann Piette, Rongxin Yin and Sofia Stensson. 
2. Trans­lat­ing cli­mate change and heat­ing sys­tem elec­tri­fi­ca­tion impacts on build­ing energy use to future green­house gas emis­sions and elec­tric grid capac­ity require­ments in Cal­i­for­nia; Brian Tar­roja, Feli­cia Chi­ang, Amir AghaK­ouchak, Scott Samuelsen, Shuba V. Ragha­van, Max Wei, Kaiyu Sunand Tianzhen Hong, Applied Energy, 2018, vol. 225, issue C, 522–534
3. Build­ing a Health­ier and More Robust Future: 2050 Low-​​Carbon Energy Sce­nar­ios for Cal­i­for­nia. Cal­i­for­nia Energy Com­mis­sion. Pri­mary Authors: Max Wei, Shuba Ragha­van, Patri­cia Hidalgo-​​Gonzalez, Con­tribut­ing Authors: Rodrigo Hen­riquez Auba, Dev Mill­stein, Madi­son Hof­facker, Rebecca Her­nan­dez, Eleonara Ruffini, Brian Tar­roja, Amir Agha Kouchak, Josiah John­ston, Daniel Kam­men, Julia Szi­nai, Colin Shep­ard, Anand Gopal, Kaiyu Sun, Tianzhen Hong, and Florin-​​Langer James. Pub­li­ca­tion Num­ber: CEC-​​500‑2019-​​033; March 2019
4. Path­ways to Decar­bonize Res­i­den­tial Water Heat­ing in Cal­i­for­nia, Shuba V Ragha­van, Max Wei, Daniel Kam­men, Energy Pol­icy 109 (2017) 441–451
5. Adop­tion of Solar Home Light­ing Sys­tems in India: What might we learn from Kar­nataka? Har­ish, Iychet­tira, Ragha­van, Kan­d­likar, Energy Pol­icy, Vol 62, Novem­ber 2013, pp –697–706.
6. Assess­ing the impact of the tran­si­tion to Light Emit­ting Diodes based solar light­ing sys­tems in India, San­tosh Har­ish, Shuba V Ragha­van, Milind Kan­d­likar, Gireesh Shri­mali, Energy for Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment, Vol­ume 17, Issue 4, August 2013, pp. 363–370.

Yu, Hilary

Hilary received her B.A. in Gov­ern­ment and Bio­log­i­cal Sci­ences, with a con­cen­tra­tion in Ecol­ogy and Evo­lu­tion­ary Biol­ogy in the lat­ter, from Cor­nell Uni­ver­sity, where she grad­u­ated in 2015. At ERG, Hilary is inter­ested in explor­ing the science-​​law nexus and the fac­tors – polit­i­cal, eco­nomic, and social – that inform the trans­la­tion of sci­ence into leg­is­la­tion. Her aca­d­e­mic inter­ests addi­tion­ally include top­ics in sus­tain­able devel­op­ment, cli­mate change edu­ca­tion, restora­tion ecol­ogy, water and energy effi­ciency, and envi­ron­men­tal jus­tice. Hilary was pre­vi­ously involved in research­ing energy and wildlife issues as an intern with the NRDC’s North­ern Rock­ies office, and in the year before com­ing to ERG, she spent some time pur­su­ing another pas­sion, work­ing in Malawi on a death penalty sen­tence rehear­ing project. Hilary is a Gates Foun­da­tion Mil­len­nium Fellow.

Siddique, Samira

Samira Sid­dique is an MS/​PhD can­di­date in the Energy and Resources Group. Her stud­ies focus on the inter­con­nected social, eco­nomic, and phys­i­cal processes of urban­iza­tion and cli­mate change in Asia. She was pre­vi­ously an inter­na­tional devel­op­ment researcher at Math­e­mat­ica Pol­icy Research, where her work included an eval­u­a­tion of the Global Pro­to­col for Community-​​scale Green­house Gas Emis­sions in cities world­wide. Prior to that, she was a researcher at the Inter­na­tional Cen­tre for Cli­mate Change and Devel­op­ment in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and at the Cen­ters for Dis­ease Con­trol and Pre­ven­tion. She received her BA from Wes­leyan Uni­ver­sity in the Col­lege of Social Stud­ies and the Col­lege of the Envi­ron­ment.  Samira has inter­ests in energy in con­flict set­tings,  and in urban cli­mate adaptation.

A 2018 paper sum­ma­riz­ing her research focus can be found in The Dhaka Tri­bune, here, and in the RAEL Pub­li­ca­tions Direc­tory.

Kuan, John Akol Akol

Akol Kuan is a civil engi­neer­ing major and Maser­Card Foun­da­tion Scholar at UC Berkeley.

In RAEL, Akol is focus­ing on the design and oper­a­tion of clean energy mini-​​grids for refugee com­mu­ni­ties, with a project focused on the UNHCR Kakuma Refugee Camp.  Kakuma is a town in north­west­ern Turkana County, Kenya. It is the site of a UNHCR refugee camp, estab­lished in 1969. The pop­u­la­tion of Kakuma town was over 180,000 in 2016, hav­ing grown from around 8,000 in 1990.

Patel, Serena

Ser­ena is an Energy Engi­neer­ing major at UC Berke­ley, where she is engaged in num­ber of activ­i­ties, including:

Work­ing at the Stu­dent Envi­ron­men­tal Resource Cen­ter under the Zero Waste Research Cen­ter to help food ven­dors achieve zero waste goals, cre­at­ing a cul­ture of zero waste within the stu­dent body through edu­ca­tion, and con­duct­ing research on com­postable plas­tics recycling.

Dur­ing the Spring 2018 semes­ter Ser­ena is lead­ing a group of 9 stu­dents in work­ing with the local non­profit, Grid Alter­na­tives, to install solar pan­els on low income fam­ily homes in Sali­nas, Cal­i­for­nia dur­ing spring break. Her respon­si­bil­i­ties include co-​​facil­i­tat­ing a class about energy access, equity, energy pol­icy, and solar energy tech­nol­ogy in Cal­i­for­nia as well as coor­di­nat­ing hous­ing, fundrais­ing, and trans­porta­tion to the location.

In RAEL Ser­ena is focus­ing on the design, oper­a­tion, power sys­tems opti­miza­tion, and social impacts of the clean energy mini-​​​​grid pow­er­ing the Human Needs Project in Kib­era, Kenya.”

Shaw, Brittany

The Human Needs Project /​ Kibera Town Center

For the Human Needs Project full web­site, click on:

http://​www​.human​need​spro​ject​.org

Pro­fes­sor Kam­men, serves as the CTO of the Human Needs Project, high­lighted how the Kib­era Town Cen­ter Project pro­vides basic ser­vices (water, toi­lets, show­ers, laun­dry) and empow­er­ment ser­vices (busi­ness skills train­ing, micro-​​credit, WiFi cafe, health kiosk, green mar­ket­place) to over 800 peo­ple per day. These inte­grated ser­vices pro­vide a holis­tic solu­tion to the chal­lenges of liv­ing in a slum. Together, they can help peo­ple with a road map to cre­at­ing a bet­ter life.

Kam­men demon­strated how clean, local energy can empower vibrant and sus­tain­able com­mu­nity cen­ters. Actress and Human Needs Project Founder and Pres­i­dent Con­nie Nielsen said, “Our vision is to develop a net­work of com­mu­nity empow­er­ment cen­ters them­selves pow­ered by clean energy, which is the most reli­able form of power”