“Big meets small” at annual MIT Energy Conference
“Everything is tied to energy systems,” said Kandeh Yumkella, former U.N. undersecretary general for sustainable energy for all, in a keynote address Saturday at the annual MIT Energy Conference. For the estimated billion and a half people worldwide who lack access to reliable electricity supplies, he said, gaining such access can be key to improving education, communications, air quality, and economic progress. “We must make small and big work together,” he said, in developing new energy distribution systems for the places that lack them – echoing the theme of this year’s 11th annual conference, Big Meets Small. “Unfortunately, for the political establishment, big is more attractive,” he said. For example, massive hydropower projects can be showcases for a nation’s leaders to show dramatic progress, but small-scale microgrid projects may reach many more people much sooner. Yumkella described his efforts over the last few years to make sure that access to energy was...