By Sarosh Bana, Business India
Sustainable energy was the dominant theme of the fourth annual symposium of the McDonnell Academy Global Energy and Environment Partnership (MAGEEP) held in Mumbai recently.
This global partnership began in 2007 with the founding of the McDonnell International Scholars Academy at the Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL), USA. A consortium of 28 premier universities across 16 countries in the Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, Europe and Latin America, it includes Mumbai’s Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B) and Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Dehli’s Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and Indian Institute of Science-Bangalore.
Drawing support from governments, the private sector, non-government organisations (NGOs) and the United Nations, this global endeavor collaborates on research that helps meet worldwide needs for energy and a clean environment. The effort has incubated numerous programmes across the developing world to assess and address the energy needs of over 3 billion rural inhabitants.
A WUSTL study on how plan proteins harvest light and funnel it to reaction centres is guiding efforts to improve next-generation solar technologies. Another aims to produce cheap and scalable solar cells through the use of titanium dioxide (TiO2) that is easier and cheaper to produce than silicon. TiO2 absorbs only ultraviolet light, but combined with dyes, quantum dots or nanowires, it can be used to make solar cells that absorb light at a wide range of wavelengths.
Access to Energy
“Every day, billions of people burn biomass to stay warm and prepare food, and for these people, energy access is the dividing line between the haves and the have-nots,” says WUSTL chancellor Mark Wrighton, the driving force behind MAGEEP and the Scholars Academy. “Our symposium brings university leaders, researchers, students and corporate partners together to discuss how to improve energy access in developing nations, while addressing environmental and societal effects."
MAGEEP director Pratim Biswas notes that this 28-university research network has created a collaborative global reach that is making a positive difference in meeting the challenges of energy and the environment. “Our ACCESS (Abundant Clean Cost-Effective Energy Systems for Sustainability) initiative joins other MAGEEP research projects that range from developing clean coal technology to energy efficiency in campus buildings, and from bio-energy and solar energy to entrepreneurship and venture capital,” says Biswas, who also chairs the energy, environmental & chemical engineering department in WUSTL’s School of Engineering & Applied Science.
WUSTL and IIT-Bombay are collaborating with corporate partners such as the St. Louis-based solar cell maker MEMC Electronic Materials, Inc on inventing solar technologies under the US-India consortium on solar energy. The consortium enlisted IIT-B and WUSTL to set up the Solar Energy Research Institute in India and the US (SERIIS) to co-ordinate its efforts. MEMC will be a major contributor to the programme, which will receive $50 million over the next five years for research and deployment of solar systems in India.
“Our initiative in developing countries, primarily focuses on access to modern energy services, and in developed countries, on energy efficiency and renewables,” says Sujeesh Krishnan, special advisor to the UN Secretary General’s high-level group on ‘Sustainable Energy for All’. According to him, there are over 100 organisations within the network that do work in India, with close to 40 of them based in the country.
“There are many challenges in inducting new technologies to solve energy poverty in developing countries,” says Dr Gautam Tadama, associate professor of social work and director of International Programmes at the Brown School at Washington University. “Not only is there often a strong disconnect between new technologies and the communities in which they are used, a fresh approach is also necessary to address the underlying reasons that cause energy dependence.” During the symposium, Yadama debuted his new book, Portraits of The Energy Impoverished: Fires, Fuel, and the Fate of 3 Billion, which illustrates the challenges faced by those who rely on biomass and other solid fuels to meet energy needs.