In the Native American Nations, 14% of households have no access to electricity. The average cost to connect a home to an existing electric distribution line in the Navajo Nation is $40,000-$70,000. The larger problems and same challenges also exist in urban communities for low-to-moderate income families. Renewable energy powered microgrids are becoming a more viable alternative to bring access to electricity into these communities. Microgids help achieve “energy democracy and social justice”, where communities can make and consume their own energy. The situation is similar in South-East Asia and Africa. This webinar will showcase examples from India and Africa that have relevance to the disadvantaged communities in the USA and can be adapted to achieve the goals of Justice40.
Dr. Ashok Das is the Founder CEO of SunMoksha. He works at the intersection of clean technologies, IoT, sustainable development goals and smart communities. Working closely with the underserved and disadvantaged communities, he has developed state-of-the-art technologies and models to address the issues of sustainable socioeconomic development, with a specific focus on smart microgrids, smart agriculture, sustainable livelihood and smart villages. His innovations and models have received several national and international awards and accolades. After developing and implementing the solutions into the field in India & Rwanda, he is now scaling these into sub-Saharan Africa and the Americas.
Prior to founding SunMoksha, Ashok worked for semiconductor equipment manufacturer, Applied Materials, in the Bay Area, USA, for a decade, and then headed the India Operations of Aquest Systems, fab automation start-up in Bay Area.
Ashok is a member of the IEEE Executive Council and Humanitarian Activities Committee at Bangalore. He the Co-chair of the North America Working Group of IEEE Smart Village Group. Ashok received his B.Tech. from IIT Kanpur and Ph.D. from Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA.
This event is free to NCAC-USAEE members. The Zoom link will be at the very bottom of the confirmation email from NCAC-USAEE, after you register. Non-members can sign up for membership at: https://www.ncac-usaee.org/membership and then sign-up for the event on the website calendar. 2022 membership entitles participation for the remainder of the year.