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.