In the News

Portfolio evaluation of US Millennium Challenge Corporation’s Green Prosperity Program in Indonesia – new evidence indicates that concerns about the sustainability of mini-grids and off-grid energy systems have not gone away.

We find that improved household ventilation in rural Senegal can reduce kitchen pollution levels by a similar amount as upgrading fuel and stove technology, once we account for real world cooking practices. The effects of ventilation alone are likely insufficient to deliver elusive health impacts, however, and should thus be seen as an interim step toward realizing the benefits of clean cooking.

Jonathan Phillips, director of the James E. Rogers Energy Access Project at Duke University, will be a visiting associate professor at Duke Kunshan University (DKU) in China during fall 2023. Jonathan will work with DKU’s International Master of Environmental Policy program, furthering research on low-carbon development and investment.

The eighth SETI Annual Workshop will feature sessions focused on low- and middle-income countries related to the energy access; the energy transition at the household level; sustainable cooking practices; energy, gender, and culture; policy interventions on energy transition; energy and climate change.

A new review published in Nature Energy examining more than 100 research articles concludes that despite the profound importance of and commitment to the UN Sustainable Development Goals for gender equality (SDG5) and universal access to modern energy (SDG7), there are gaps in knowledge about the relationship between gender and energy that could hinder progress toward these goals.

Robyn Meeks will join Harvard Business School’s Institute for the Study of Business in Global Society (BiGS) as one of five visiting fellows conducting research projects related to climate. Robyn will study climate resilience in developing countries while at Harvard for the 2023-24 academic year.

Marc Jeuland will work with leading African scholars at the Environmental-Economics Policy Research Unit (EPRU) and the School of Economics at the University of Cape Town (UCT). His teaching and research will focus on the limited access to electricity in sub-Saharan Africa, where 55% of the population lacks electricity, many more have intermittent supply and consume little energy and nearly 80% depend on polluting technologies for lighting, cooking and heating.

On the latest episode from the Sanford’s Ways & Means podcast – Marc Jeuland, Jonathan Phillips, & Rahel Bekele discusses how solar mini-grid powered irrigation can change smallholder farmers’ lives and the work EAP@Duke is doing to evaluate the effects of the DREAM project on the resilience of the farming community.

Listen to Victoria Plutshack, P. P. Krishnapriya, & Erin Litzow on women’s contribution to science in and different aspects of energy and gender in commemoration of this year’s International Women’s Day.