A Global Survey of Energy Poverty from Space

Measuring electricity access is an expensive and difficult undertaking, fraught with error and missingness. Leveraging computational analysis of remotely sensed data across thousands of nights, we generate indicators of electricity poverty across the globe at the settlement level, improving spatial resolution and filling in temporal gaps. We demonstrate the reliability and validity of these classifications against ground-based surveys at multiple scales. We estimate the energy poor population is 1.17 billion, 60% higher than the official global estimate of 733 million lacking electricity access. Most of the world’s energy poor live in areas that are more remote, less densely populated, and more rugged than energy abundant areas. The results clarify the obstacles that impede equitable access to sustainable and affordable energy and provide new data to improve the targeting of solutions to address energy poverty across the world.
Co-sponsored by: Dr Wencong Su
Speaker(s): Brian Min,
Agenda:
Main Event is from 12;30 PM to 1;30 PM
Thus attending in person – refreshments will be provided.
4901 Evergreen Rd, Dearborn, Michigan, United States, 48128, Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/400643