On December 21st, Tata Center director Rob Stoner talks about opportunities for small-scale technologies to have a big impact.

Roughly a fifth of the world’s population, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa and India, is either too poor or lives too far from major load centers to be electrified conventionally. Three times that number cook and heat their homes with dung, wood or, charcoal. The human and global economic consequences of this are considerable. In this seminar, Robert Stoner will describe the nature of the opportunity through technological innovation, business models, and public policy to bring some aspects of modernity to those not yet served by modern forms of energy. In particular, he will address the potential role of distributed generation technologies in the context of overall energy system optimization.

Details:
Wednesday, December 21, 3:00 PM
Mechanical Engineering, Room 3-370
Seminar host: Douglas Hart

Refreshments will be served beforehand, outside Room 3-370

About the speaker:

Robert Stoner is Deputy Director of Science and Technology for the MIT Energy Initiative, and the Founding Director of the Tata Center for Technology + Design. His research interests include energy technology and policy, power systems, and design for resource-constrained settings.