The international event aims to combat energy poverty.
Loyola University hosts 'Empower to a Billion Lives', an entrepreneurship forum to fight energy poverty
The capital of Seville will become the venue for the International Conference for Universal Access to Energy in January: Empower a Billion Lives. An event organized by the Institute on Electrical and Electronics Engineering (IEEE) in collaboration with other associations of experts in electrical and electronic engineering. This initiative starts from a synergy between professionals from all over the world to combat energy poverty, as well as to guarantee access to electricity for all populations.
The Institute of Science and Technology of the Loyola Andalucía University (LOYOLATECH) will host more than fifteen projects that compete to bring electricity supply to especially critical areas, especially concentrated in Central Asia and Africa. The jury of experts in Empower a Billion Lives will judge these initiatives according to their technical innovation, business viability, required resources and levels of sustainability. A scale from which a winning proposal will be obtained that will opt in the world final for a prize of one million dollars for its execution.
The Rector of Loyola University, Gabriel Pérez Alcalá, has highlighted the “importance of this event for being closely related to the values that inspire the Compañía de Jesús, and for being a meeting that puts knowledge at the service of human development". He also stressed that the meeting will serve as a meeting point "for engineering professionals, students, researchers and those interested in technological development in general".
In this way, Pérez Alcalá recalled the institution's firm commitment to promoting universal access to energy, which he says “has already been reflected in international cooperation projects such as the one we developed with our Development Institute, the ETEA Foundation, and the Engineering Department of the University, to bring electricity to a Honduran village".
Energy poverty in the world
According to the International Energy Agency, 13% of the world population does not have access to electricity, a problem derived from the lack of investment by large corporations in locations where the return on investment is not assured. However, it has been demonstrated the direct relationship between access to electricity and the reduction of poverty rates, improved health, increased productivity and economic growth.
Empower a Billion Lives will be held on January 22 and 23 at the Seville Campus of Loyola and the Carriage Museum. The first of these sessions, open to the registered public, will feature interventions by the Secretary of State for Energy, José Domínguez Abascal, and the representative of the International Association of Jesuit Universities (IAJU) in Africa, François P. Kabore SJ.
The registration period is open. More information and registration at this link: www.ieee-ebl.eu.org
DECEMBER 18, 2018
