Between the 2nd and 4th of March 2021, The Microenergy-Systems Postgraduate School (MES), in collaboration with Technical University Berlin, BRAC University Bangladesh and Carnegie Mellon University, organized the first fully digital MES Conference. Dedicated to celebrating Bangladesh’s electrification efforts, the conference hosted more than 20 sessions, raising the interest of more than 300 registered participants from 40 countries. Here are some of the memorable quotes:

• “We need to change our thinking going from energy access to energy well-being; the session should not be called Universal Basic Energy Supply, but Universal Basic Energy Services” -  (Shonali Pachauri, IIASA)

• “After 100% electrification, we need to focus on how we get from quantity to quality” - (Amzad Hossain, Member, Bangladesh Renewable Energy Board)

• “The grid is a social good; without it, there is a route to inequality! We need to leverage the grid together with distributed models” - (Chris Wright, Moixa)

• “We need to develop policies to incentivize feed-in from distributed generation and storage, e.g. through a community power purchase agreement (CPPA)” - (Raluca Dumitrescu, MicroEnergy International)

• “Bangladesh is embarking on a new journey after the confirmation a few days after graduation from a least developed country. This is a massive success for the country, coinciding with its 50 years celebration of independence. On this new journey, we should reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and raise our share of renewables. For this to happen, we need more innovation on business models, technology such as distributed storage and generation as well as policy reform” - (Siddique Zobair, Chairman, SREDA). 

 

As an outcome of the MES 2021 Bangladesh - Germany conference, two conference proceedings will be published: a symposium (“Special Issue”) of Economics of Energy and Environmental Policy (EEEP) and an Energy Springer special issue. As already announced during the closing ceremony of the conference, the MES 2022 conference will take place in East Africa, in hybrid format (both digitally and physically). More on this will be announced soon.