Nearly a third of humanity lacks reliable electricity. Over the summer as part of Duke University’s Data+ program, Duke student teams deployed cutting-edge data analysis techniques to aid the search for solutions to this global challenge.

The Duke University Energy Access Project aims to help achieve the United Nation’s (U.N.) seventh Sustainable Development Goal, which is to ensure universal access to affordable, reliable, and modern energy services by 2030.

The Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions’ Catalyst Program aims to build on the Nicholas Institute’s mission by increasing engagement with Duke University faculty to incubate and advance new partnerships, enhance policy-relevant knowledge, and create innovative policy solutions based on new creative synergies.

In a Brookings blog post, Duke University Energy Access Project staff write about a three-year study of more than 77,500 papers on energy access and the internationally agreed on Sustainable Development Goals.

Electric utility Duke Energy’s former CEO Jim Rogers and his wife, M.A., gave $1.5 million to found the Energy Access Project, a partnership between the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, the Duke University Energy Initiative, Sanford School of Public Policy, the Nicholas School of the Environment and Bass Connections at Duke.

Some of the leading lights from the energy access community convened in Washington, D.C., February 23 for the launch of Duke University’s Energy Access Project.

Leaders from business, government, civil society and academia convened in Washington, D.C., on February 23 to explore one of the world's most pressing challenges at Accelerating Global Energy Access, the formal introduction to Duke University's Energy Access Project.

The Trump administration's solar tariff announcement has spurred lively debate in the U.S., but on the other side of the globe, Duke-University Energy Access Project staff Jonathan Phillips and Hannah Girardeau write in Devex that there is a similar debate roiling around the treatment of solar panels and related equipment in trade policy that could make the stakes even higher for energy consumers across sub-Saharan Africa.

Jonathan Phillips, formerly the senior advisor to the president and CEO of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, has been named director of the Energy Access Project at Duke University. This new research and policy effort aims to address the challenges around increasing access to modern energy solutions to underserved populations around the world.