Workshop: Sustainable Energy Development: A case for US and Africa; held in Nairobi, Kenya on August 12-16, 2011.

Howard University, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

Several active projects in the electricity sector are actively discussed both in the U.S. and Africa towards achieving sustainable development. The assessment of electrification projects is of particular interest based on renewable energy which has proven to be successful. It has helped to assure affordable, accessible and sustainable energy requirements to improve health delivery, transportation, finance, water and human capacity building. In developing countries, several lessons can be learned on why development project failed or unsustainable. Some of the reasons include the lack of framework to meet multiple objectives that include alignment of objectives of the projects with sustainable development, the lack of understanding of the impact of uncertainties during project take-off and lack of proper coordination and management. Other factors include lack of advanced system engineering tools to account for uncertainties and decision making. These factors are the major concerns to be addressed in the workshop on sustainable development and energy for the US and Africa. The intellectual merits of the proposed Workshop will include: 1. What is an appropriate framework for developing energy related project so that we can guarantee sustainable development? 2. How to incorporate appropriate uncertainties in modeling of renewable resources. 3. Development or evaluation of advanced tools for analysis, to account for multiple objectives, uncertainties and variability in renewable energy development project with the sustainability issued as an objectives. 4. What education and research needs are to be in place to ensure a successful frame work for energy and other related engineering projects are successful and sustainable. The proposal through the workshop within ICPSOP will include experts from the US and Africa to present their viewpoints based on case studies relevant to their countries as examples. Intellectual Merits: The proposal is aimed at developing a 4-day workshop to address strategies for designing and developing electrification project based on renewable energy which will lead to meeting project goals and sustainable development including various form of uncertainties. This workshop will engage experts in system engineering, power system and economics, energy market and pricing. Through research work, and best practices, participants will provide case studies, and propose solution and recommendation on how to deal with issues of uncertainty with foresight for sustainability in achieving electrical engineering projects development. The use of computational intelligence has developed tools with capability to handle foresight and renewable energy resources with model of variability. In additional, storage technology and inverter technology research needs and challenges related to renewable energy conversion and processing will also be given at the workshop. The experts in this area will provide a catalytic role to ensure the goals of the workshop are met. The broader impacts will include: 1. The workshop is aimed at developing fundamental understanding of why development based on non - alignment of objectives may result in the failure of engineering projects. The outcome of the workshop will provide answers to questions of how to develop capacity, research and educational topics with sample case studies from the US and Africa. 2. The methodology to achieve robust transformation in technology evolution using renewable energy for development will be discussed. The workshop will also serve as a forum for presentation of best practices based on participating countries profile and geographical location. In addition the potential for business of renewable energy resources (RER) in each of the countries will be highlighted. Research and development portfolio will be presented for stakeholders at the conference. The outcome of the results of the workshop will be published in IEEE journal and proceedings.