It was a pleasure to deliver my Fellowship Inaugural Lecture on Community Energy Resilience on 23 October 2019 at Loughborough University.
You can listen to the lecture here.
Author: Long Seng To
The UK Energy Research Centre made this awesome video featuring the Research Collaborations for Community Energy Resilience and Electricity Systems project which received funding from their Whole Systems Networking Fund.
Read my accompanying blog post here.
As a member of the Solar Energy Sub-Group of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe’s Expert Group on Resource Management, I am delighted to announce that the specifications for the application of the United Nations Framework Classification for Resources (UNFC) to solar energy has now been endorsed and is now operational.
The new Solar Specification will accelerate the shift towards solar energy by enabling the reporting and classification of solar projects in an internationally-harmonised way. The next step is to develop case studies to demonstrate their real-world application and to raise awareness of the new standard.
You can access the Solar Specifications here.
I was delighted to present a paper on ‘Community energy resilience in the era of climate change’ at the New Climate Urbanism workshop on 4-5 September 2019 hosted by the Urban Institute, University of Sheffield. The international workshop explored the changing relationship between cities and climate change.
Read more about the workshop here.
PV Magazine featured my work on the draft Solar Specifications for the application on the UN Framework Classification for Resources for their August 2019 issue.
“As solar comes to represent a larger proportion of the global energy mix, direct comparisons with conventional energy sources, and even with other renewables, are becoming more and more important. This is reflected in a bid by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe’s (UNECE) Expert Group to standardize reporting on solar energy potential. Long Seng To, Royal Academy of Engineering research fellow at Loughborough University, and part of the UNECE solar energy subgroup, discusses the draft standards.”
Read the full interview with PV Magazine here.
It was wonderful to take part in the first Humanitarian Energy Conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on 31 July to 1 August 2019. The conference brought together a diverse group from across the globe, including representatives from NGO’s, international organisations, funders, businesses and academia, working to improve and expand energy access for displaced and crisis-affected people.
Read the conference report here.
As a member of the Solar Energy Sub-Group of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe’s Expert Group on Resource Management, I am pleased to announce that the draft specifications for the application of the United Nations Framework Classification for Resources (UNFC) to solar energy is open for public comment.
The new Solar Specification will give financial institutions a standardised way to compare solar energy with other energy sources, paving the way for further investment as costs of solar energy technologies reduces. It will also help industry to accelerate the development of solar energy projects and help governments to manage their national resources sustainably. It will also help us to understand our energy resources on a global level.
The draft Solar Specification is open for comment until 30 August 2019 here.
I am delighted to be supervising Kaitlyn Law from McGill University as a Summer Research Student with the Low Carbon Energy for Development Network from July to August 2019.
Read Kaitlyn’s blog post about her work me on community energy resilience here.
It was a pleasure to host a session on ‘Energy Resilience’ during the Low Carbon Energy for Development Network annual conference at the University of Stratclyde, Glasgow on 2-3 May 2019.
The session was a deep dive into energy resilience from a community perspective. The short presentations by Collen Zalengera (Mzuzu University), Aran Eales (University of Stratclyde) and myself focused on Malawi as a case study. We reflected on the impact of Cyclone Idai, which affected the southern part of Malawi, on energy access. The presentations were followed by discussion on research questions identified during a recent workshop in Malawi.
You can read more about the conference here.
The third workshop for the Collaborations for Community Energy Resilience in Low-Income Countries project took place in April 2019. The Malawi workshop was held in collaboration with Mzuzu University and the Civil Society Network on Climate Change. The workshop aimed to identify research needs and collaboration opportunities, and included participants from Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe. It was a very timely discussion as the region recovers from Cyclones Idai and Kenneth.
I was really pleased to be at the launch of the Modern Energy Cooking Services (MECS) programme in April 2019. Loughborough University and the World Bank’s Energy Sector Management Assistance Programme will lead this £39.8 million UK aid research programme to find innovative, clean and modern alternatives to biomass fuels, such as charcoal and wood.
Read more about the MECS programme here.
The second of three workshops for the Collaborations for Community Energy Resilience in Low-Income Countries project took place in February 2019. The South Asia workshop, held in Kathmandu in Nepal, aimed to identify research needs and collaboration opportunities to increase community energy resilience in on-grid, mini-grid, and stand-alone electricity systems. It was great to hear from experts in disaster risk reduction and energy access in the region.
Read more about the workshop on the Energy and Economic Growth website here.
In this webinar, I present a summary of the discussions from the ‘Research collaborations for community energy resilience and electricity systems’ project so far. I focus on the South Asia regional workshop held in Nepal in February 2019.
Read a full description of the webinar here and download the slides here.
Are you interested in doing a PhD with me on community energy resilience in Nepal and Malawi? A fully-funded studentship opportunity is available at Loughborough University. Work with a great team at the Low Carbon Energy for Development Network and the Centre for Renewable Energy Systems Technology. Applications close 25 February 2019.
Read the full advertisement here.
I’m excited that my new journal article on ‘Tacit networks, crucial care: Informal networks and disaster response in Nepal’s 2015 Gorkha earthquake’ has been published in Urban Studies as part of a special issue on ‘Transcending (in)formal urbanism’.
Read the article here.
The second paper in the Low Carbon Energy for Development Briefing Paper series is out! In it, Jon Leary, Alfred Alsop and I explore the continuing role for small wind in rural electrification programmes.
Read the full paper here.
I’m truly honored to have received an Engineering for Development Research Fellowship from the Royal Academy of Engineering. I am looking forward to helping communities build decentralised, networked and resilient energy systems!
Read the press release announcing my fellowship here.
I have a new paper in the Energy and Economic Growth (EEG) Energy Insight series. It introduces a new partnership between the EEG and the Low Carbon Energy for Development Network (LCEDN), to catalyse new research collaborations on community energy resilience in low-income countries, with a focus on opportunities in on-grid, mini-grid, and stand-alone electricity systems.
The six-month project is supported by the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC) Whole Systems Networking Fund and was launched on 1 June 2018 during a session at the LCEDN Annual Conference at Loughborough University, UK, on ‘Resilience Concepts for Energy’, summarised in this paper.
Read the full paper here.
Ed Brown and I are delighted to be supervising Harry Jia over the next 10 weeks. He is joining the Low Carbon Energy for Development Network as a Summer Research Student (funded through an EPSRC Vacation Research Bursary).
Read Harry’s introductory blog post here.
I’m looking forward to speaking at the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC) Annual Assembly at the University of Sheffield on Thursday 12th July 2018. Join me at the Networking Fund session for an update on the Research Collaborations for Community Energy Resilience in Low-Income Countries project.
Learn more about the UKERC Whole Systems Network Fund which supports the project here.
Long Seng To speaking at the LCEDN Annual Conference 2018. Photo by Joni Cook.
I was delighted to launch the Research Collaborations for Community Energy Resilience project on 1 June 2018 with two conference sessions at the LCEDN Annual Conference held at Loughborough University, UK called ‘Under the Grid’ and ‘Resilience Concepts for Energy’. I gave a presentation about community energy resilience in Nepal after the 2015 earthquake.
Read more about the conference here.
Participants of Practical Challenges of Sustainable Electrification in Africa workshop, Oxford University
I was very pleased to represent my Nature Energy paper on ‘Mapping synergies and trade-offs between energy and the Sustainable Development Goals’ at the Practical Challenges of Sustainable Electrification in Africa workshop at the Smith School of Enterprise and Environment, University of Oxford on 7th June 2018.
Read the full paper here.
As the Editor, I’m delighted to launch the LCEDN Briefing Paper Series with this piece on ‘Lessons from collective action for the local governance of mini-grids for pro-poor energy access’ by Lorenz Gollwitzer and Jon Cloke.
Download the Briefing Paper here.
A grant from the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC) Whole Systems Networking Fund will enable me to build research collaborations for community energy resilience.
Read the full announcement here.