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ABOUT US
Twenty years ago an effort was mounted at the Frederick Douglass Institute for African and AFrican-American Studies at the University of Rochester, based on the idea that energy had a critical role to play in assisting developing nations to overcome he scourge of poverty. What became the the nonprofit AHEAD Energy Corporation also proposed that development of locally-available energy resources could ignite rapid development and provide a model for sustainable energy transitions. Until recently, energy's role in development has not been well understood.
Since the United Nations meeting on Sustainability in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2002, there has been a growing recognition that the Millennium Development Goals cannot be achieved without provision of modern energy services. Since then, AHEAD's goal of universal access to clean, efficient, reliable, affordable energy services has been adopted by many in the international development community. Recently, the question of how to provide modern energy to an additional 3.5 billion people, while protecting environmental balances has become perhaps the greatest challenge of our time. AHEAD has responded by developing the concept of "evolving energy mixes."
AHEAD has produced reports for the World Bank and Shell Foundation on assessing the potential of pro-poor small-scale energy projects. In conjunction with its partners, Universidade Eduardo Mondlane and Empresa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos de Moçambique, AHEAD completed a pre-feasibility study in 2006 on energy supply extensions in Moçambique. Besides working with Moçambique, AHEAD has worked on projects in Ghana, Uganda, Kenya and with the Seneca Nation of Indians in upstate New York.
Through AHEAD, university students and faculty have produced numerous studies on Africa's energy sector, some involving field work in Africa. In 1991, AHEAD assisted Mozambican officials in designing a system to provide electricity to the Town of Vilankulo (population 60,000). The project, the first of its kind in Africa, has been held up as a model by the World Bank. AHEAD staff returned in 1998 to work on evaluating progress.
Over the years, AHEAD has established expanding relationships with energy professionals and organizations in Africa. In 2007, two university professors from Mozambique came to Rochester for a year to study sustainable energy transitions in the developing world at the University of Rochester and work with AHEAD to craft projects applicable to their national context. These two professionals are now serve as AHEAD staff in Mozambique.
