Renewable World is working with Imperial College on a number of research projects including the SURE-DSS Tool, which allows isolated poor communities to make a informed decision about the various energy options available to them.

The SURE-DSS tool is a multi-disciplinary tool that can processes large amounts of information about the local conditions of a poor isolated community, including a complete inventory of its available assets and energy services.  The tool then forecasts and compares the impacts on the livelihoods of the community with different energy supply systems, and models the likely effects and trade-offs of projected energy solutions, applying an Energy Impact Index (EII) to determine the one most suitable.

The tool facilitates the planning of energy infrastructure for small communities, enabling the priorities of the users to be considered.  It includes technical and non-technical aspects of energy and livelihoods, and addresses the objectives that are generally present in policy programmes.  The mathematical system has been rigorously designed to be used in rural communities anywhere in the world, and produces a simple, useful graphical representation of the most suitable outputs.

More information can be found at the Hedon website.