PELS Honors Innovators for Energy-Poor Communities [Newsfeed]

Reports on IEEE PELS initiatives to organize a global competition to crowdsource energy-access solutions that would be scalable, sustainable, affordable, expandable, extendable, and regionally relevant. More than 475 teams signed up, 170 proposals were submitted from more than 70 nations, 82 teams went to a Shark Tank-style regional round (covering four continents), and 23 teams went on to fieldtest their solutions before competing at the Global Final on 29 September 2019 in Baltimore, Maryland. While competition prizes are a valuable outcome, the feedback teams received from experts in energy access, business, and technology was invaluable. With the data gleaned from field testing in communities without energy services, where people live on under US$1.90 per day, the IEEE was essentially eliminating risks associated with market entry for solutions to energy poverty while supporting the IEEE mission and growing a more cohesive energy-access community.