Andrea Dorado
UCL
Energy poverty drivers: a bottom-up approach for the Mexican case.
Energy in dwellings is a driver for human development, however, sometimes households cannot afford basic energy services. This research aims to contribute to the understanding of energy poverty in Mexico. The study constructs a bottom-up model using conditional probabilities to determine the electricity load profile incorporating climatic, economic and behavioural data. The study provides three results: 1) Cooling, cooking and washing appliances drive the daily demand. 2. Cooling appliances stand out because of the unequal penetration rate among economic stratum and regions. 3. For the bulk of energy consumed, the price per unit of energy is lower in high-income households.
Eric Verploegen
MIT D-Lab
Mobile evaporative cooling rooms for vegetable preservation
In many countries across the world 30-50% of the food produced is lost before it reaches the table. MIT D-Lab is developing forced-air evaporative cooling chambers with the potential to provide an effective, low-cost solution for postharvest fruit and vegetable storage in low-income regions with hot and dry climates. Access to improved fruit and vegetable storage will reduce food loss, enable farmers to sell their produce at a higher price, and improve access to nutritious food. This new design will be deployed and tested with rural farmers in collaboration with a Kenyan social enterprise and an NGO in Gujarat, India.
Gina Panagopoulou
University of Piraeus, Greece
Securitizing Climate: the U.S. and the criticality of the renewables
Securitization happens when a topic is presented as an existential threat (Buzan, Waever, & de Wilde, 1998) to a referent object. With regards to climate change, year after year it is presented as an existential threat not only to our way of living but also to humanity’s and the planet’s (as we know it) very own existence. The purpose of this study is to examine if there is evidence of climate securitization in the current U.S. administration’s climate policy. Extra emphasis is placed on the role of the renewables and if they should be considered securitized, too.
Maike Pfeiffer, Daniela Muhaj
Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL)
Evidence-based Approaches to Energy Use, Environmental Standards, and Firm Compliance
Evidence-based policy is key to ensuring that innovations in energy, environment, and climate achieve their intended impact in real-world settings. The Firms and Environment teams at the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) are working to catalyze and disseminate the findings from impact evaluations on energy efficiency, energy access, pollution reduction, corporate energy use, and firm compliance with environmental standards. We will be sharing lessons from rigorous impact evaluations across the world, give a lay of the land of evidence-based approaches to energy policy, and outline open questions for future research.
Martha Amram
GLYNT.AI
Better Emissions Data for Businesses, Communities and the Planet
What is the annual carbon emissions of your home or place of business? Hard question to answer! Today emissions data production is done manually by off-shore teams or expensive consultants. It is slow, messy and error prone. GLYNT.AI has built the modern automated solution. We call it a New Type of Emissions Data: Accurate. Verifiable. Accessible. Transparent. With trillions pouring into ESG reporting, businesses need better emissions data. So does the planet. GLYNT is used by businesses around the globe.
Max Burns
MIT D-Lab
Clay Pot Coolers for Food Storage in Developing Nations
Evaporative cooling devices constructed from clay pots are simple and inexpensive ways to keep vegetables fresh without the use of electricity. In arid regions without access to an electricity grid, clay pot coolers are one of few practical and affordable forms of food storage. These systems have the potential to prevent food loss, strengthen the perishable food supply chain, and create opportunities for additional income generation in nations suffering from food waste due to spoilage. MIT D-Lab is testing the efficacy of different forms of clay pot coolers, and disseminating instructions for their construction by conducting training sessions abroad.
Reinhard Goethert
MIT
SOLAR UP! UPDRAFT POWER
Reimagining solar tower concepts for broad practical applications, from houses, highrises, to cities, to meet the evergrowing global challenges of sustainability, environment, and cost effectiveness in an urbanizing, electrical world. Innovative application of solar tower updraft concepts as driver of electrical energy generation: abandoned factories repurposed which revitalize communities, highrises with atriums adapted as generators instead of consumers, and resultant cities becoming self-sufficient de facto ’factories’ from largely independent unlimited ‘free’ energy.
Sam Crum
Greentown Labs
Greentown Labs - The Largest Climatetech Startup Incubator in North America
Greentown Labs is a community of climate action pioneers working to design a more sustainable world. As the largest climatetech startup incubator in North America, Greentown Labs brings together startups, corporates, investors, policymakers, and many others with a focus on scaling climate solutions. Greentown Labs offers lab space, shared office space, a machine shop, an electronics lab, software and business resources, and a large network of corporate customers, investors, and more. With its headquarters in Somerville, Mass. and a recently opened incubator in Houston, TX, Greentown Labs is home to more than 180 startups and has supported more than 400 startups since the incubator’s founding in 2011.
Grant Gunnison
ZERO
ZERO
Zero is a software company that enables hassle-free home retrofits to improve comfort and eliminate emissions. We are focused on automating home assessments, creating customized decarbonization plans for homeowners, and providing the building data we generate to industry stakeholders to streamline their operations and the implementation of retrofit projects.
Shaharyar Khan
MIT
Protecting our Energy Infrastructure from Cyberattack
Recent cyber-physical attacks have invoked an ominous realization about the vulnerability of critical infrastructure, especially our energy delivery systems. Traditional IT security-biased protection approaches are largely impotent against targeted attacks by advanced cyber adversaries. There is an urgent need to rethink our strategy to safeguard our energy infrastructure against cyberattacks by taking a holistic, systems-thinking approach and designing for security. In this poster presentation, we will demonstrate tools and techniques that we are building to help us achieve that goal to protect our energy infrastructure.
Jungwoo Chun, Jessica Cohen, Wilhem Hector
MIT
Sources of Opposition to Renewable Energy Projects in the United States
In our study, we identified 53 utility-scale renewable energy projects across the U.S. that were delayed or blocked between 2008-2021. Of the projects we studied, 34% faced difficulties securing permits, 49% were cancelled permanently. Project delays and cancellations account for potential lost generating capacity of 4,600 MW. We conducted a multi-level qualitative analysis and identified seven key sources of opposition. State and local governments and renewable energy developers need to pay closer attention to the full range of socially-oriented sources of opposition to new facilities.
Aimee Rose, Jonathan Colburn
activate.org
Activate Entrepreneurial Research Fellowships
Are you a first time technical founder seeking to commercialize new products that can combat climate change? Activate looks for scientists whose research has the potential to transform the world’s physical infrastructure and industries and who are driven to bring that research to market as a new product or business that can benefit society. The Activate Fellowship is a proven model to help science entrepreneurs move their breakthrough climate tech research into the market. The Activate Fellowship takes no equity in fellows’ startups. Founded in 2015, the two-year fellowship is a secure path for fellows to start their journey as entrepreneurs—providing the time, resources, and guidance to develop as leaders and mature their ideas. Applications for our next cohort Oct 15 and close November 30.
