Internships

Kennedy Boniface ’24

Major

Chemical and Biological Engineering

Project Title

Increasing Foreign Renewable Investments: Bilateral Financing for Power Generation Technologies in Africa

Presentation Link

View Kennedy's Presentation

Africa is home to 17% of the world’s population but only accounts for 4% of global power supply investment. This disproportion, though dire, presents a great opportunity for African countries. Instead of addressing their energy needs through fossil fuels, these countries have the opportunity to leapfrog these energy sources and build clean and sustainable energy systems. Our project focused on increasing Chinese investment into renewable technologies because China has been the biggest financier for the energy sector in Africa for the past 20 years. I examined existing databases and publications to better understand Chinese investment patterns in select African countries. We also contacted and interviewed more than 20 experts from select countries and organizations to flesh out and address the factors affecting the level of renewable energy investment on the continent. Through these interviews, I not only gained a richer appreciation for the potential of renewable technologies in developing economies, I also learned more about academic communication. Moreover, working with visualization tools and handling large quantitative datasets greatly improved my data analysis and presentation skills. I plan to continue researching and taking courses about renewable energy policies and financing, in addition to my current engineering interests in renewable technologies.