The IEEE Energy Access Workshop is organized in conjunction with the IEEE Empower a Billion Lives Global Competition and will include presentations by some of the winning teams and the award of $500,000 in prizes.

The workshop will convene experts from global aid organizations, NGOs and foundations involved in energy access and a cadre of technical experts from IEEE to explore how technically and economically viable solutions can be developed and deployed at scale. Key issues to be addressed include technology, social impact, business models, regulatory issues, climate impact and sustainability.

Rapid deployment at scale also requires the consideration of technology and market de-risking of new solutions for potential investors, demonstrations and pilots of new solutions, sharing of success stories and best practices, alignment of metrics to create scalable solutions, and mechanisms to ensure that solutions deployed meet required quality levels.