Bridging the gap between energy research and energy development impact

Summary form only given. Increasing access to clean, affordable energy services is a critical factor for progress on the Millennium Development Goals and for reducing poverty and hardship among a sizeable portion of the global community. Addressing this energy and development challenge requires not only technological advances to bring down cost and scale, but also innovative deployment and market creation strategies that may be specific to the social, economic and geographic context. More platforms where technology development is undertaken with knowledge and explicit consideration of the deployment context (e.g. weak physical infrastructure and limited markets) are desperately needed. Universities play a key role as a source for technological innovation, but the connection between the research lab and the unique requirements for energy technologies and systems in a development context is often missing. At the Masdar Institute, a newly established, research-driven university in Abu Dhabi, the Laboratory for Energy and Poverty Solutions (LEAPS) has recently been created to attempt to bridge the gap between energy research and potential applications for poor communities in the developing world. LEAPS is anchored by a semester-long graduate course focusing on systems-level solutions for meeting energy and water needs with local, renewable resources. As part of the course, students visit a case study site where they design and undertake a project with local community partners. An important outcome from the course is for students to realize how their energy-related research can be applied in a development context. One ongoing case study is investigating various aspects of operating a small microhydro powered microgrid for a remote community in East Malaysia, and a future case study is under development for electricity and water provision in Somaliland. This paper first presents a brief background on the Masdar Institute and its unique focus on research into advanced ener- - gy and sustainability. The motivation and model behind LEAPS is then described with a focus on experiences and lessons learned from integrating case study projects with a developing community into a course on renewable energy technologies. Results from the projects involving the microhydro village grid in Malaysia and the case study in Somaliland are then presented.