Providing clean energy for the Developing World is both an absolute necessity and an enormous market opportunity.
Greg P. Smestad, Ph.D. was invited to speak to the Santa Clara Valley Chapter of the IEEE PhotoVoltaic Society on January 15, 2015.
His talk surveyed solar energy-related engineering and entrepreneurship in emerging market countries, with an emphasis on strategies for coping with the absence of a grid.
Professor Smestad examined the concepts surrounding solar energy availability in the developing world as the key to improving societal education, health, and standard of living in under served populations.
Case studies in photovoltaic (PV) installations illustrated the interrelationships between the technical, engineering, economic, marketing, and cultural aspects of these business endeavors; with parallels drawn between the rapid expansion cell phone networks and distributed PV in developing nations. This is based on the idea of technological “leap frogging” and diffusion of ideas.
Cases presented included Grameen Shakti’s successful social business model for renewable energy in Bangladesh; especially in photovoltaics.
Download the slides for Dr. Smestad’s talk Distributed and Renewable Energy for the Developing World, Photovoltaics for a Billion Poor.
20 – 23 September 2022, Istanbul, Turkey
Dr. Smestad and co-authors presented (via a pre-recorded video), “Progress in Solar Energy to Address the Energy Crisis” at the International Conference and Exhibition on Renewables, “Technologies and Options for Securing Energy & Food Flows in View of the Ukrainian Crisis.” This grassroots, but earnest, event was hosted by the Internationales Forschungszentrum für Erneuerbare Energien, IFEED, e.V. in Germany, Selçuk Üniversitesi, Turkey and the Nordic Folkecenter for Renewable Energy, Denmark. Download his slides (PDF) here. Download the abstract to the talk (PDF) here.
Additional Presentations given by Greg P. Smestad, Ph.D.