Students Explore Energy Access in Zambia from the Ground Up
During the 2018-2019 academic year, a dozen Duke students worked with faculty and staff from the Energy Access Project (EAP) to explore ways to expand access to off-grid energy in one particular African country, Zambia. Funded by and conducted through Bass Connections, the project sought to evaluate the business and policy landscape for energy access in Zambia. The project was led by two staff members from the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions—EAP Director Jonathan Phillips and senior policy associate Rob Fetter.
“When it comes to delivering improved development outcomes, energy is the lynchpin for everything from poverty eradication to health, education, and gender equity,” Phillips said. “In Zambia, people want electricity. And many are willing to pay for it. So the challenge becomes identifying electrification pathways that allow for grid expansion while giving private companies the tools and enabling environment to step in and help meet the needs of off-grid households as quickly as possible.”
Through two trips to Zambia, team members built relationships with key players in the sector. They also visited a wide range of communities and went door to door to understand residents’ energy needs and habits.
“I learned a lot from [the academic literature], but when you actually go on the ground and start asking people questions, you realize that it’s a pretty different landscape,” said Kemunto Okindo, an undergraduate majoring in civil engineering.
Back on campus, students created an open-source geospatial model to help project developers and system planners identify location-specific assets, opportunities, and barriers for expanding access to energy. Users can apply filters, add custom data layers, examine customers’ willingness and ability to pay for services, and identify the most appropriate sites for off-grid electrification based on individualized criteria. Team members also produced an overview of the Zambian off-grid ecosystem including all important stakeholders, financing and assistance platforms, and market barriers.
For the students, the hope is that their project will lay a foundation for improving Zambians’ access to energy and their everyday lives, from health care to education to economic opportunities and more.
“Growing up, I was fascinated by energy. I made it my life’s mission to see how we can gain different perspectives and solve this problem of energy access around the world,” said Aashna Aggarwal, who graduated from Duke in 2019. “There’s so much happening in the energy community at Duke… through Bass Connections, we step out of our textbooks and start solving real-world challenges.”
Three Nicholas School master’s students are moving forward on one aspect of this work, teaming up with energy services company Standard Microgrid to understand the types of small businesses that are critical to anchoring electricity demand and spurring development in Zambian microgrid communities.
Learn More
- See the RFP for 2020-2021 Bass Connections projects and submit a proposal by November 4.
- Read about the 2018-2019 Bass Connections project team, From the Ground Up: The Business and Policy Landscape for Energy Access in Zambia.
- Explore the Bass Connections 2018-2019 Annual Report.