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Vijay Modi
Feb 5, 2025
Understanding what drives the community, what energy can unlock for rural livelihoods, and what activities entrepreneurial households are engaging in continues to be a challenge. We took a stab at understanding what it takes to achieve this at a “national scale”. The idea was to explore how bottom-up local demands...
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Vijay Modi
Jan 31, 2025
Building on insights from the CEET policy brief “Beyond Basic Electricity Access: The Unrealized Promise of Solar Power for Economic Growth in Africa”, key findings from our recent brief explore how a strategic mix of grid extensions, mini-grids, and solar home systems (SHS) when integrated effectively, can serve diverse populations...
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Vijay Modi
May 21, 2024
The e-GUIDE Initiative is a partnership of groups at five universities: the University of Massachusetts - Amherst, Carnegie Mellon University, Columbia University, Rochester Institute of Technology, and University of Washington. Read updates from some of the students in our lab conducting research with e-GUIDE in the following summary documents: Updates...
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Vijay Modi
May 13, 2024
This Tuesday, May 14th in Paris, the IEA and the Clean Cooking Alliance will bring together leaders from countries to advocate for closing the large SDG gap in adoption of the clean cooking agenda. Coming out of an OPEC Fund meeting on April 22, 2024, a few of us (SEforALL,...
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Vijay Modi
May 31, 2022
Last week I visited the slums of Kampala, Uganda while on my way to the Sustainable Energy for All Forum in Kigali. I wanted to see with my own eyes the conditions in the slums when it comes to energy and water. It is well known the world over that...
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Michael Waite
Dec 21, 2019
Read the full article published in Joule. Greenhouse gas emissions from electricity generation get a lot of attention, but the 12% of nationwide emissions from burning fossil fuels in buildings cannot be overlooked, particularly because they are the largest emissions source in many places. For example, in New York State...
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Vijay Modi
Jan 11, 2018
For the few days before and after New Year’s Day, the Northeast experienced extreme cold temperatures. Natural gas prices peaked at nearly 50 times last year’s average. Electricity prices also rose, and were nearly 3 to 5 times the usual for this time of year. Our next electric and gas...
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Jack Bott
Jan 10, 2018
The Quadracci Sustainable Engineering Lab was asked to assist in the installation of four new Shared Solar units in rural Uganda. This past December, power was turned on and payment systems were activated. That means eighty new households have a stable source of electricity. Those electric connections can be used...
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Jack Bott
Jan 10, 2018
In the last week of August 2017, IADB held a conference in conjunction with the Quadracci Sustainable Engineering Lab. The goal was to introduce and discuss new and innovative possibilities for the future grid. Given recent developments in alternative energy sources and growth in the use of sensors, this workshop...
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Jack Bott
Jan 9, 2018
In 2017 The Sustainable Engineering Lab had its official relaunch as the The Quadracci Sustainable Engineering Laboratory. The name change followed a generous supporting donation from the Quadracci family and The Windhover Foundation. The launch was a happy occasion in The Northwest Corner Building at Columbia University. (Photographs by Timothy...
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