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.”
As an undergraduate Kelly was invited to work as a GSR to compile data on decentralized renewable energy (DRE) in partnership with Power for All (P4All) as part of a larger effort to research and to build the case for universal electricity access by 2025 through distributed renewable energy. In this project Kelly is working with Dr. Rebekah Shirley and Professor Dan Kammen of UC Berkeley Energy and Resources Group.
In the Spring of 2018 Kelly is also a Visiting Student and mini-grid research student at the State Key Laboratory of Transmission Equipment and System Security and New Technology at Chongqing University where she is supervised by Professor Minyou Chen of the School of Electrical Engineering.
Dennis has focused his career on technology and sustainability policy in emerging and developing economies. His research interests include technology and innovation policy and impacts to resource and rural development, technology transfer and the political economy of land use management. He has led programs with the Paris based International Energy Agency, as an official of the OECD, working with emerging economies on energy technology policy and contributing to the Agency’s analysis of energy, environment and climate policies (specifically working collaboratively with China and other transition economies in exploring long-term clean energy options, including advanced bioenergy, carbon sequestration and negative emissions systems.) Prior to living in Berkeley, he spent five years in France, and seven years in Beijing, China – advising government and industrial clients on sustainability and technology deployment initiatives. He holds a BA in political science (international relations) and a concentration in East Asian studies from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
Energy storage deployment and innovation for the clean energy transition
Noah Kittnera,b, Felix Lillb,c and Daniel M. Kammen*a,b,d
a Energy and Resources Group, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
b Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
c Center for Digital Technology and Management, TU Munich, Munich, Germany
d Goldman School of Public Policy, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
The Sustainable Islands group at RAEL is involved in understanding the scope for renewable energy and energy efficiency in the Small Island Developing State (SIDS) context. We are involved in a number of projects that involve feasibility analysis, resource optimization and energy system modelling. We conduct assessments and build decision support tools for policy makers and individuals — to support the build out of sustainable, low carbon island economies. Some of our past projects are listed here:
Energy Sector Trends in the Caribbean
Professor Kammen and graduate student Rebekah Shirley recently published an article on the history of energy sector development in the Caribbean. The paper also looks at a number of current renewable energy projects in the region, performs cost benefit analysis and discusses opportunities for future renewable penetration in the region. Our work is highlighted in Nature Climate Change.
Shirley, R. and Kammen, D. (2012). Renewable energy sector development in the Caribbean: Current trends and lessons from history. Energy Policy. Volume 57, June 2013, Pages 244–252
Energy Efficient Low Income Housing, French Polynesia
The RAEL Sustainable Islands group was invited to collaborate with researchers from the UC Berkeley Gump Station in Moorea and the Polynesian Housing Office to conduct a integrated study on the sustainability of low income housing prototypes based on materials and thermal performance. Our team contributed the carbon footprint assessment to this study. Check out the final report above.
Carbon Footprints and Green-Job Potential in the USVI
Professor Kammen and graduate student Rebekah Shirley were invited to participate in the NREL Energy Development in Island Nations Initiative, launched in St. Thomas, USVI in 2010. Since then they have collaborated with NREL and various agencies in the territory to develop a household carbon calculator and green jobs estimator used as tools in public education and decision making. Kammen and Shirley also collaborated with NREL and the OAS to prepare a survey of the status of Energy Policy in various Caribbean Islands.
Shirley, R., Jones, C. and Kammen, D. (2012). A household carbon footprint calculator for islands: Case study of the United States Virgin Islands. Ecological Economics. Volume 80, August 2012, Pages 8–14
U.S. DOE (2011). Energy Policy and Sector Analysis in the Caribbean 2010 — 2011.
Shirley, R. and Kammen, D. (2012). Estimating the Potential Impact of Renewable Energy on the Caribbean Job Sector. RAEL Report 2012.1.
Green Jobs in Grenada
RAEL collaborated with the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) on a road map for sustainable economic growth in Grenada. Professor Kammen and graduate student Rebekah Shirley prepared a chapter on green job potential while ERG alumni Dan Prull prepared a chapter on future energy options. The report was published for the Rio +20 Summit.
UN DESA (2012). Road Map on Building a Green Economy for Sustainable Development in Carriacou and Petite Martinique, Grenada.
Susana Arrechea holds a bachelors degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of San Carlos of Guatemala and a masters degree in Molecular Nanoscience and Nanotechnology from the University of Castilla-La Mancha. Susana is a Professor at the Engineering Faculty at the University San Carlos of Guatemala. In 2011, she began a doctorate program in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology at the University of Castilla-La Mancha in Toledo, Spain. She received a scholarship through the Carolina Foundation, the University of Castilla– La Mancha and the University San Carlos of Guatemala. Susana investigates novel materials for third generation solar cells at the Institute of Nanoscience, Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials at the University of Castilla – La Mancha. In 2014, she was selected to participate in the Renewable Energy group of Fulbright Regional Network for Applied Research (NEXUS) Program, led by Dr. Daniel M Kammen and Dr. Sergio Pacca. This program bring together a network of researchers from the United States, Brazil and other Western Hemisphere nations, for a series of seminar meetings and multidisciplinary research. Susana will visit the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory (RAEL) at the University of California, Berkeley, to studying sustainable isolated microgrids in Latin America as part of the Fulbright NEXUS exchange experience.
Prior to Berkeley, he was a research associate with Stanford University’s Program on Energy and Sustainable Development from 2008 to 2010.
Before joining RAEL in October 2015 Dr. Deborah A. Sunter was a AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow at the Department of Energy: Advanced Manufacturing Office.
Her interests include renewable energy systems, advanced manufacturing techniques, and the interaction of science and policy in academia, industry and government.
She received a B.S in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Cornell University. There she developed a nanosatellite mission that was successfully launched into orbit. Although fascinated by aerospace applications, the time-critical issue of global warming shifted her focus in graduate school to explore renewable energy. Specializing in computational modeling of thermo-physics in multiphase systems, she developed a novel solar absorber tube and received her Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. The need for a global environmental solution led her to do research abroad in both Japan and China.
Dr. Sunter is both a BIDS, Berkeley Institute for Data Sciences, Fellow, and will begin as an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Tufts University in July 2018.