Clean Energy
Off-grid Electricity-based Energy Services in Rwanda
Apart from access to energy, poverty reduction also requires access to services that are enabled by new electricity-based applications and support human socio-economic development, such as ICT, lighting, or cooling. This research project addresses energy service poverty in rural and remote areas in Rwanda, by providing reliable and affordable "electricity-based" energy services. This promotes productive use and income-generating opportunities for the end-user. This research intends to inform (national and international) electrification policy, by bringing electricity-based energy services to the heart of the analysis on "energy access".
Focus Country: Rwanda
Contact Persons: Dr. Churchill Agutu, Prof. Tobias Schmidt
Partners: external pageKigali Collaborative Research Centre, Kigali, Rwanda
ETH4D Grant: E4D Doctoral Scholarship
New Public Lighting for Informal Settlements
Rapid urbanization worldwide has led to public service challenges that disproportionately affect residents of informal and poor neighborhoods. While much work focuses on access to water, sanitation, and electricity, public lighting is a neglected topic in research and policymaking. Few informal neighborhoods have sufficient public lighting, yet it might play an important role in enabling people to feel safe outside at night as well as in accessing shared basic services, like toilets or water taps.
This transdisciplinary project, which is a collaboration between the ETH Development Economics Group and the ETH Institute for Science, Technology, and Policy (ISTP), uses a field experiment to test the efficacy of a new public lighting technology — solar lights mounted onto residents’ houses — in an informal settlement in Cape Town, South Africa.
Focus Country: South Africa
Contact Persons: Yael Borofsky, Stephanie Briers
Partners: external pageSocial Justice Coalition, external pageCity of Cape Town
ETH4D Grant: ETH4D Research Challenges
Read more about research on clean energy on the ETH Energy Blog.