Providing Renewable Energy Technologies to Productive Use for Rural Electrification (STEEP-RES II)

Research Project, 2012 – 2015

STEEP-RES – a multidisciplinary research project on opportunities and barriers for increased utilization of renewable energy sources in East Africa. The project aim is to conduct research contributing to locally driven development processes where available renewable energy sources are used for sustainable rural electrification. To reach such an objective technical development and transfer need to be based on actual local demands and societal prerequisites where potential unwanted implications have to be proactively considered. 

Today, the awareness of abundant renewable energy resources has resulted in several successful implementations of clean and independent energy technologies also in the countries with lowest access to electricity. The diffusion and speed-up of such processes need to be facilitated and barriers must be revealed and solved. 

 The STEEP-RES project work with questions regarding e.g.: - Institutional barriers
 - Importance of productive use of electricity
 - Influence of and impact on (human) power relations in electrification processes
 - Bottom-up driven electrification and off-grid systems
 - Availability of different renewable energy sources
 - Potential of future renewable energy sources (e.g. ocean energy)
 - Environmental assessments of renewable energy systems (ERA, LCA) - Integration of new technologies in rural societies
 - Technical solutions adapted to small scale and off-grid use ​