Summary
PhD candidate based at the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment, South Kensington Campus. Part of the Science and Solutions for a Changing Planet doctoral training partnership.
PhD title: "Designing low carbon pathways for rural electrification"
Supervisors: Professor Jenny Nelson, Dr Ajay Gambhir and Dr Sheridan Few.
770 million people lack access to electricity globally. This represents both a challenge and an opportunity, with clean access to electricity enabling progress on a number of sustainable development goals. Recent falls in cost of solar photovoltaics (PV), wind power and battery storage mean that low-carbon access solutions are in many contexts the least-cost option for meeting unmet demand.
My work uses and develops models suitable for household or community scale off-grid and grid-connected systems; it also develops and applies tools that combine electricity demand modelling, energy systems modelling and geospatial data to look at country or regional pathways to universal electricity access.
Current Research Interests:
- Potential of Agri-PV in Sub-Saharan Africa
- Gaining a better understanding of national grid reiability levels in rural areas of low-income countries
- Electricity generating infrastructure for charging light electric-vehicles in cities in Kenya and Rwanda
Selected Publications
Journal Articles
Sandwell P, Winchester B, Beath H, et al., 2023, CLOVER: A modelling framework for sustainablecommunity-scale energy systems, The Journal of Open Source Software, Vol:8, ISSN:2475-9066, Pages:1-5
Beath H, Hauser M, Sandwell P, et al., 2021, The cost and emissions advantages of incorporating anchor loads into solar mini-grids in India, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Transition, Vol:1, ISSN:2667-095X, Pages:1-14