Episode description

According to the Sustainable Development Goals Report 2021, although 46% of sub-Saharan Africa's population now has access to electricity--up from 33% in 2010--the region is far behind the global average of 90%. 97 million people in urban areas and 471 million in rural areas are still without access to electricity.  

The lack of access is caused by several factors. On the demand side, there are low uptake and expensive connection charges while on the supply side, the energy sources are unreliable since more of the existing options in the region are renewable decentralized grids. This unreliability drives blackouts and brownouts. 

In this episode, we feature Camila dos Santos Gonçalves and Grace Chenxin Liu, who are members of the New York Academy of Sciences, which selects 1,000 of the world's brightest high school students (ages 13-17) to become part of The Junior Academy. The members are then given a global challenge to work on, together with mentors and experts, to learn how to understand global problems and find approaches to address them. 

In this year's challenge, the group was tasked to work on the Flexible Use of Electricity. After two months, the team of young people from different parts of the world presented their approach of using space satellites to respond to the energy needs but also approaching the issue holistically, addressing systemic issues, gender equality, and climate change. 

Listen to this episode to learn more about how Camila, Grace and their team use space satellites to provide electricity to the most vulnerable groups in Sub-Saharan Africa. 

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