Energy, Engineering, and Social Justice

On the 17^th June at Transpower House, Associate Professor Henry Louie from the College of Science and Engineering, Seattle University, gave a seminar on the importance of energy in raising the standard of living amongst people living in poverty, and the role engineers might play in helping them gain access to electricity. The seminar was jointly organised by EEA, IEEE PES Chapter, and Victoria University of Wellington.

Professor Louie explained that at present, 1.2 billion people or 17% of the world’s population don’t have access to electricity. A high proportion of these people live in Sub-Saharan Africa or South Asia, and live in rural rather than urban areas.

The dilemma we face is that if all 7 billion people in the world used 9.94 MWh, the average annual power usage per person in New Zealand, and the world’s population continues to increase at its current rate of 1%, and demand per capita also increases, by 2050, 109 1000 MW coal plants will need to be built that year to meet the energy demands of 10.2 billion people.

Assoc Prof Louie then described how appropriate and affordable technologies that are expandable and scalable can be used to provide electricity on a sustainable basis to the rural poor, and can also provide them with opportunities to generate an income.

As a result of attending the seminar, several ECS students are keen to attend the upcoming Engineering Change workshop at Auckland University, in order to gain inspiration for developing technologies for the poor as part of Dr Ramesh Rayudu’s special topic course ECEN 427.