This startup lets villagers create mini power grids for their neighbors

The commercially-based Wind for Prosperity initiative may have devised a solution to meet growing demands for electricity in developing economies, where fossil fuels are expensive, difficult to access, and take a toll on environmental and human health. The venture works to refurbish wind turbines from Europe and re-deploy them in the developing world, providing clean and affordable power where it’s needed most.

To use up excess renewable energy and help finance the expansion of power grids, companies such as Gridless are connecting energy producers in African countries with cryptocurrency miners that are eager to buy up unused power. By selling off energy to cryptocurrency companies, one hydropower system was able to expand its electricity service to 500 more homes.

Over 70 Catholic dioceses in the Philippines have entered into an agreement with energy resource company WeGen Laudato Si to install solar panels on their parishes, schools, and other buildings. The Diocese of Maasin on Leyte Island became the first in the world to completely shift to renewable energy. Installing the panels can be expensive, but shifting to solar has saved one diocese at least 100,000 pesos a month in energy bills.

Covering canals with solar panels has allowed Indian communities to save land, water and carbon emissions, and even bring electricity to rural villages. The solar panels are suspended on metal structures over the canal, which can generate electricity for farmers and be fed into the state grid or sold to public utilities. While these canal-top solar power plants can be expensive to build, so far, eight Indian states have commissioned canal solar projects.

Alberta, Canada is a place that historically has had a close relationship with oil and gas. But as renewable energy surges into the market, these industries become more and more precarious. This article talks to a range of young men—a key demographic in these industries—about why they made the decision to leave oil and gas for solar energy and what helped them make that transition. Many said, among other things, that their motivations lay in wanting to leave a better world for their children to grow up in.

In Bangkok’s Sukhumvit neighborhood, solar panels generate renewable energy, which is traded using blockchain between an apartment building, a mall, a school, and a dental hospital. The pilot project demonstrates the potential of decentralized renewable energy systems.

Solar power is a great advancement for renewable energy, but traditionally relies on connecting to a grid in order to function correctly. So when hurricanes hit Puerto Rico, even those with solar panels lost access to electricity. A micro-grid offers an alternative solution, however, by relying on battery power.

One of the greatest challenges to integrating renewable energy sources into the power grid has been the issue of storage - where and how to keep power generated during off-hours (such as overnight) when demand is low. While batteries are on the rise as one solution, an Alabama power plant has discovered a natural way of storing energy until it is needed: pumping air into salt caverns.

A team of engineers at IIT Madras, a public university in India, has partnered with local utilities and the national Ministry of Power to bring sustainable, low-cost electricity to off-grid rural villages in the northwestern state of Rajasthan. With solar power supplied by DC microgrids, these poor rural communities are experiencing transformations to increase quality-of-life: affordable fridges that aid in food preservation, fans which mitigate heat and repel mosquitoes, and battery-powered phones connecting them to public emergency services.

New York is determined to become a national leader in the renewable energy sector, and they are leveraging numerous approaches to help integrate better and more environmentally conscious technologies into the grid. The multi-faceted approach includes updating laws and regulations to be more renewables-friendly, hosting competitions to foster entrepreneurship and creative solutions in the field, piloting new technologies, and creating better incentives for utility companies.