ESD
Ph.D. student, colleague
create
Energy World Tour
May
13, 2008
The
Energy World Tour is an international
project initiated by ESD Ph.D. student
Blandine
Antoine and colleague Elodie Renaud
that led them to visit 17 countries
in four continents, from January through
August 2007. The purpose of the Energy
World Tour was to meet with energy
innovators around the globe and share
news of their initiatives with the
largest audience possible.
Senegal:
cutting down wood to make charcoal
that is subsequently sold as
domestic fuel to urban areas
has dire consequences on the
Sahel soil characteristics.
The PERACOD program trains villager
cooperatives (here in Nganda,
near Kaolack) to set up new
revenue-yielding activities
that help protect the forest
and lower soil erosion (for
e.g. honey or medicinal plants
harvesting, sustainable forestry).
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After
meeting with over 200 of these entrepreneurs,
researchers, public servants and non-profit
specialists, the two science graduates
gave a score of presentations in France
and abroad, and wrote a book to share
their experience with the general
public. Le
Tour du monde des Energies (the
Energy World Tour) published in May
2008 in France by JC Lattès,
illustrates the various forms that
energy challenges take in different
locations. Although solutions and
the technologies that enable them
vary, inventiveness, creativity and
entrepreneurship are being used to
address, from Senegal to Norway, from
Pakistan to Brazil, the constraints
that increasing scarcity of fossil
fuels and climate change are putting
on energy use and supply.
Morocco:
a small fraction of the very
successful PERG rural electrification
program consisted in setting
up small PV arrays in remote
hamlets, to be maintained with
private operators such as Temasol,
our host in Ben Ahmed (near
Settat)
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This
project was complemented by a pedagogical
partnership set up with seven French
primary schools. The non-profit group
Prométhée, which Blandine
and Elodie co-founded in June 2006,
created class materials on energy
technologies, in addition to a game
on energy savings and an internet
forum where pupils could ask questions
to young scientists. All were made
available to partner schools.
Following
this pilot phase, they are now working
on improving the quality of this material
to make it available to a larger group
of students.
India:the
Auroville Center for Scientific
Research investigates technologies
that would help reduce the city’s
consumption of fossil fuels
and grid electricity. This photo
shows solar concentrators for
thermal energy purposes.
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Blandine
holds a diplôme d’ingénieur
from the Ecole Polytechnique (France),
a MS in Nuclear Engineering from UC
Berkeley and a Master in Public Administration
from the Ecole Nationale des Ponts
et Chaussées (France). She
has worked at the French National
Safety Authority and with GE Nuclear
Energy in California. A civil servant
for the French department for transportation
and infrastructures, Blandine is a
Ph.D. candidate at MIT’s Engineering
Systems Division, where she wishes
to investigate what impact biofuels
and related land-use issues will have
on developing economies. She is a
Fondation Carnot Fellow and holds
a Presidential Fellowship from MIT.
Elodie
holds a diplôme d’ingénieur
from the Ecole Polytechnique (France),
an MS in mineral economics from
the Colorado School of Mines and
an MS in petroleum economics and
management from the IFP School (France).
She has worked with the French utility
EDF in Moskow (Russia) and has recently
taken a power technology manager
position with the oil company Total,
where she develops new energy-related
projects within the technical department.
More
details on Prométhée
are at www.promethee-energie.org.
Further
information on Blandine and Elodie’s
book can be found at www.letourdumondedesenergies.com
(in French only).
For
examples of visited projects and
more detailed conclusions on the
special situation of developing
economies, please download the presentation
(in
English).
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