Designing sustainable energy for all : sustainable product-service system design applied to distributed renewable energy

Abstract

It gives me great honour and privilege to contribute with the foreword for this book, as a collaboration between Africa and Europe towards sustainable energy for All. The book is a transdisciplinary text with the latest knowledge-base, know-how and experiences in sustainable energy for All system development and design. Indeed, it presents the key role of design in providing sustainable energy solutions to human society in its quest for continuous improvement and socioeconomic development. Africa is blessed with a variety of sustainable energy resources, including solar, hydropower, wind, mini/micro hydro and geothermal resources. However, lack of access to adequate and sustainable energy services remains one of the major constraints to economic development on the continent. We, therefore, urgently need to encourage and incentivize our scientists, researchers and research institutions, businesses and industries, supported by development partners and governments, to invest more in research, education, curricula development and designing feasible and bankable renewable energy projects, that will enable Africa to exploit and utilise the continent’s vast energy resources for social economic development. From the LeNSes project and from this book, a proposal was developed in this direction. Indeed, the Sustainable Product-Service System (S.PSS) model applied to the Distributed Renewable Energy (DRE) one, a promising win-win combined model towards sustainable energy for All, in fact, promoting the leapfrog from individual ownership of energy systems to collective access to sustainable energy. To design and implement such new models, the book presents the knowledge-base, the design approach, the design process and related tools developed and tested during the LeNSes project. It is my opinion that this book can effectively contribute to promote a win-win approach towards sustainable energy solutions, which has been developed in the African continent, and can be replicated elsewhere for the universal attainment of sustainable energy for All.