Hello CEE Students!

My name is Trent Dillon and I’m the lead officer of Global Renewables Infrastructure Development (GRID). GRID is a registered student organization that works on designing, optimizing, installing, financing and assessing the societal impacts of renewable energy systems, with a specific focus on projects that advance equitable access to electricity. We’re an interdisciplinary mix of graduate and undergraduate students with backgrounds in engineering, natural sciences, social sciences and more.

We’re recruiting new members! On Thursday, November 4th from 4:00-5:00 PM we’ll host an on-boarding meeting to provide an overview of GRID,  discuss the projects mentioned below in greater detail, and answer questions. If you’re interested in joining, please fill out this short (~1 min) form so we can send you the zoom link.

Here’s a little more information about GRID:

In 2018 and 2019, we installed just over 50 single home solar systems in municipalities in Puerto Rico that were severely impacted by Hurricane Maria, as well as rural indigenous populations in Guatemala that lack access to the electric grid. Throughout the pandemic, we have focused our efforts on remote projects, such as developing optimization software to design a solar and battery storage energy system for a library in Ghana. Our overall aim is to give students hands-on experience in the implementation of clean energy technologies, gain an understanding of the non-technical aspects required for community-based projects to be successful, and to research, identify, and publish best practices for clean energy development projects, with an emphasis on social justice and working co-collaboratively with community members.

Currently, we have four project groups in need of support from new members.

• Ghana Project Team: using and developing optimization software to design an off-grid solar-powered library in Ghana
• Business Team: helping to budget and pursue fundraising opportunities for our Ghana Project concept, also organizing networking events for GRID
• Test Bed Team: designing a small-scale solar energy system for the UW Solar Energy Test Bed (lots of hands-on work, including developing a custom data acquisition system)
• Social Impacts Team: developing social surveys, visualizing survey data and publishing best practices on how to work co-collaboratively with communities

We’re also very interested in new projects, research and partnerships. If you have an interest in renewable energy and an idea for how your background or connections may be applicable, we’d love to hear from you and chat further about your concept! Please sign up or email grid@uw.edu.