Blog Post 4 - Politics, Law, Policy, and Cultural Phenomena vis-a-vis Electrifying the Masses

Politics. Policy. Law. Cultural phenomena. These aspects of life are fundamental flashpoints in issues relating to electrification. Let's look at each of them in an attempt to better understand not just the current situation of trying to provide access to electricity for the people of the world who do not have it, but more importantly, the trends we're seeing for the future. Identifying these trends and any potential roadblocks is key toward developing better ways to achieve the objective of providing electricity to those who lack it or lack it in regularity.

Politics. Of course, any issue that involves substantial social change is going to be a political lightning rod. This is especially true for issues of providing access to electricity for those who do not have it, because it challenges dominant forms of energy production bycompeting for market space. Fortunately, much of the political red tape in this regard is reserved for issues of transitioning from unsustainable, fossil fuel energy sources to sustainable, green energy sources. Therefore there is not as serious a political calumny associated with providing energy where there is no access. Yet, these issues remain due to interest of existing dominant power providing corporations. Fortunately, there are profitability reasons associated with why much of the world does not have electricity today. This means that profit-oriented businesses are not necessarily clamoring for work in those areas, leaving opportunities for those interested in providing access to electricity for more noble reasons than profit.

Likewise, policy and laws are having a big impact on future trends in providing electricity for those who do not have it, but not in terms of quantity. Some places have outlined and stated official government support for such efforts that include incentives to bring sustainable, green energy to those who do not have it. But it seems that policy usually ignores this segment of the population, which is reflective of their general isolation.

Perhaps the most important arena vis-a-vis providing electricity access to those who do not have it today is cultural phenomena. Business is done in a new way in the 21^st century. Small-scaleentrepreneurs, not major firms, are the movers and shakers of the energy field. This is because there is not financial gain in providing sustainable, renewable access to electricity for those who do not have it. Accordingly, due to the fact that major energy firms are for-profit across the globe, there is little interest in finding ways to essentially set up these populations for self-sustaining energy production. Rather, their focus is on exploiting existing systems while they can. Of course there are exceptions, but this is the general trend. Therefore the most important players in this cause today tend to be small-scale, local entrepreneurs who are driven by their love for invention and belief that one should play a moral and constructive role in the world.

Thankfully, this cultural trend is something shared globally. Most excitingly, it is strongly associated with the global youth and middle-aged. In other words—in contrast to the profit-driven development that typified the past two centuries, nowadays entrepreneurs are looking for collaborative, sustainable, healthy sources of electricity for the sake of sharing this technology among all humans rather than just those who can make good customers. These forwards trends are good signs that the world's population who does not have access to electricity will get it in coming years due to the alignment of technology, desire, and capability that is embodied in today's global cultural phenomena.

Bennet Cohen and Anya Chernoff: Two Exemplars in the Quest to Bring Electricity to Those Who Don't Have It!

As discussed in my previous post, the future of bringing access to electricity to those who don't have it seems to be in renewable energy sources. The idea that the world's unelectrified populations should be electrified is pretty much agreed upon. The controversy exists in just how to do that. While proponents of traditional systems using fossil fuels may be quite vocal, their voices are louder than their impacts. In fact, the majority of new electricity providing projects being undertaken throughout the world today rely on renewable energy sources.

Two movers and shakers in this field today are Bennet Cohen and Anya Cherneff. Not surprisingly, they are a romantic as well asprofessional couple. Cohen worked for the Rocky Mountain Institute, or RMI, “an independent, non-partisan nonprofit that drives the efficient and restorative use of resources.” What does this translate to in the real world? RMI “advances market-based solutions, engaging business, communities, and institutions to cost-effectively shift to efficiency and renewables.” In other words, RMI is the ideal embodiment of today's trends in providing access to electricity to those who do not have it. It combines sustainable methods that take advantage of the latest, cleanest technologies, and ensures local ownership of these assets.

Bennet and Cohen have achieved a lot in the way of providing access to electricity to those who do not have it, In fact, they single-handedly developed, initiated, and reviewed a program that resulted in real and meaningful changes in one particular community.

Bennet noted that not only are there 1.3 billion people across the globe who do not have access to electricity, but that 1 billion people do not have electricity on demand and oftentimes must go almost an entire day without it. Therefore there are 2.3 billion people in the world with no access to electricity at all or no meaningful access. What does this mean? It means that these persons cannot take advantage of much of modern technology. Not only can they not use it, but they cannot build their lives around it.

Bennet and Cohen chose a place to start. They knew from their work experience in resolving problems related to insufficient or unsustainable fuel sources that a lot of the world's population that does have power gets it from burning kerosene. Kerosene is both expensive and dangerous, but it is available. It provides light but does not provide electricity in general. It dangers are documented quantitatively. Therefore it is an inefficient means to an incomplete end.

Bennet and Cohen saw the situation regarding kerosene use in Nepal as a source of heat and light as an opportunity for a grand solution. The solution was not to just provide a resource of heat and light, but to provide a source of electricity that could provide not only heat and light but power everything electrical under the sun.

Under the sun is the key word, because Bennet and Cohen sought to utilize solar technologies. They found through their mutual fields of research—his in clean energy, and hers in women's empowerment—that small-scale solar power generators would simultaneously solve the kerosene problems of Nepal while creating many new opportunities as well.

The solution: Solar LED lighting. It is small, portable, bright, renwable, and inexpensive. Utilizing Cohen's technology, Chernoff established Empower Generation—a non-profit dedicated to delivering the solutions to Nepal's population. Chernoff took advantage of the fact that women in Nepalese society are typically tasked withproviding energy and used her gender as a way in.

Through Empower Generation, Chernoff instituted a program that successfully delivered solar powered units to a local entrepreneur who sold 825 of them—325 more than her goal of 500 in 2013. Furthermore, Chernoff has begun a “buy one give one” system that provided one solar-powered LED light to someone who does not have access to electricity in Nepal for every one sold domestically.

It's overwhelming to think of the success that Cohen and Chernoff have achieved in terms of providing electricity for those who do not have it. Their success is a testament to the fact that technology, ingenuity, and the right associations are the key to change. While large-scale efforts may be underway in many places...the bulk of success stories involve individual- or community-based, small-scale, renewable energy products. Duplicate the success of Cohen and Chernoff today by starting your own one-on-one-off program!

Contemporary Issues and Current Solutions

There are many obstacles that lie in the path of providing electricity for the world's populations that do not currently have it. Many of these obstacles are technological. However, economic and political obstacles do exist. A great example of one and how it has affected the effort to get electricity to the populations that do not have it is occurring right now in India. Yet this conflict presents opportunities for new ways forward.

The headline in Forbes Magazine was “Investors Hope New IndiaGovernment Scraps Subsidies To Poor Farmers.” This article was published on 22 June 2014. It related the fact that India's wealthy business class is politically opposing the country's subsidies program. This program is an effort to subsidize poor rural farmers in order to keep them competitive. As stated in the article, much of this program's funds go to subsidizing electricity.

This article demonstrates how political and economic disagreements can cost at-risk populations to lose their access to electricity. This fact presses an obvious conclusion. We must work toward making it so that no population is at risk for losing its access to electricity. In such a world, the investors would have no gripes and the government would have no loss of money in this area. Traditional methods that were more about sustaining weak systems are costly and outmoded. They need to be replaced by new technologies which are here today.

What great answers are found in the article “Cleantech in the developingworld: from solar power to refrigeration” published in The Guardian on 13 July 2014. Kristine A. Wong discusses three groundbreaking technologies that could invalidate the circumstances of the aforementioned threat to access to electricity for at-risk populations in India.

First we have the Solar Pump, as designed by Paul Polak of Colorado. Mr Polak's solar pump is more expensive upfront than a traditional pump powered by fossil fuels. However, its energy is self-sustaining because it is solar powered. In fact, Mr Polak promotes his product in areas where government subsidies were cut, thereby putting the power to be electrified in the hands of the consumers themselves. Overall, these cost about 80% less than traditional pumps.

Yet this brings us to another problem commonly associated with green technologies for producing electricity. While they cost less in the long run and are cleaner and more sustainable, they typically cost more up front. This issue is commonly brought up by proponents of fossil fuel electricity sources for rural development due to their lower upfront costs. So the company producing them plans on utilizing a leasing program in order to resolve both of these dilemmas. Communities in need can utilize these tools and they can do it right away thanks to the leasing program.

Another technology is helping to keep dairy products from spoiling by providing farmers with 

power for refrigeration. Using solar power to charge batteries of refrigeration units, developers were able to provide sufficient power for about 30% of the community that lacked electricity. Although there is still 70% to go, this move points out one of the key reasons that electrifying the world is important. Because farmers without cooling capacities do not have as many options since their milk will spoil fast, they cannot compete in the marketplace. Electrifying communities that do not have it is a major leg up in marketplace participation, and a necessary component for any development in the world today.

Has anyone else seen any technologies in the news that might be a solution to the problem of providing electricity to the world?

Electrifying the world: Does it matter and how will it be done?

Hello! My name is Mahmoud Ataya and I am an electrical engineering student. I care a lot about electrical engineering not just as a job but as a social issue. There are a lot of people in the world who do not have electricity. This is really bad because electricity is an important feature of modern life. Without it, one cannot be on par with the rest of humanity. Furthermore it is an issue because there is not a universal idea about how to get electricity to all the people in the world. This means that humanity must get together to solve this problem but first we have to find out a smart way of doing it that we can all agree upon. In this blog, I will explore different ideas about how to provide electricity to the people of the world. I will talk about their individual benefits and detriments. I will look at places where they were used and analyze how effective they were at solving the problems that they were meant to solve.

First though we have to establish the importance of solving the world's problems with electricity. There are some people who do not think that everyone in the world needs to have electricity. Some of these people believe that it is not possible to build the infrastructure to give everyone electricity so that is why they do not want to do it. Others think that it is chauvinism to want to give everyone access to electricity. The bottom line is that we can do it because we have the technology and if people do not want to use electricity, that should be their choice, but they should also have the choice to use it if they want. Therefore making electricity available to everyone does not disrupt their way of life because they can choose if they want to use it or not. Look at the Amish for example.

Electricity is therefore an important part of modern life. It powers pretty much every element of modern life at at least some stage. The major aspects of modern life such as mobile technologies, computers, internet connections, etc. are powered by electricity. So are the best medical technologies like defibrillators and diagnostic tools. The modern conveniences of life are fueled by electricity like microwave ovens. Therefore access to electricity is necessary for everyone if they are going to partake in modern life and its conveniences. It is therefore a universal human concern to provide electricity to all of humanity much like it was a universal human concern to cure certain diseases or feed humanity.

However, there exist many ideas about how to provide electricity to the people. The three remaining blog posts for this blog will explore the ways in which researchers have thought to provide electricity to the people. These include local and regional ideas, ideas fueled by fossil fuels and ideas that are from renewable energy, and ideas that are free market and ideas that are public sector. After examining the pros and cons of each, there may be a clear winner as to the best way for humanity to get behind a singular method and work together to provide electricity to everyone on planet earth.