University of Notre Dame teams with African countries to support Ugandan algae and other renewables

In Michigan, University of Notre Dame with counterparts in Uganda, Rwanda and Nigeria are working to bridge the gap through a program called Energy E3 — Empowering Nations to Power Their Nation, with plans underway for an inaugural energy innovation center in Uganda.

Energy E3 enables education, engineering design and entrepreneurship by teaching local technicians and engineers how to prototype, design, build, install, maintain and create a business venture for renewable energy devices using local materials and resident technical expertise.

Notre Dame’s research team and collaborators have developed wind turbines, hydroelectric generators and biogas cooking devices with thermal electric generators in addition to hand-crank and table generators at multiple sites in all three sub-Saharan countries, with additional projects in Haiti and an upcoming project in Nepal. They are also working with colleagues on finishing the concentrating solar power generator and biodiesel from local Ugandan algae.