Power to the People: MPA ESP Alumni Travel to Europe to Continue Their Work

Four alumni from the MPA-ESP class of 2007 will be traveling to Europe this month to present the results of their final project for their Workshop in Applied Policy Analysis.  Leyla Pourarkin, Juan Pablo Osornio, Vanessa Peña, and Melissa Wright will visit organizations in Paris, Brussels and London to share their report entitled, “Power to the People: Promoting Micro-investments for Distributed Generation in the European Union.”  

This study is the result of a semester-long collaborative effort between ten MPA ESP students, Notre Europe’s Co-Secretary General, Stephen Boucher.  It examines the merits for the EU of promoting decentralized, clean or green electricity generation systems owned by communities or individuals that have the potential to generate excess energy to sell back to the distribution network of the electricity grid. The team looked at case studies throughout the European Union, including the first community-developed wind turbine in the UK and a bioenergy village in Germany.  The team’s research made the case that the contribution of such projects could be significant and that the EU has a role to play.

The group will present to the International Energy Agency in Paris, and Euroheat & Power and the Small and Medium Enterprise Association in Brussels.  They will then go to London to speak with the Micropower Council and Policy Studies Institute. 

The Workshop in Applied Policy Analysis is the capstone course of the program, emphasizing practical and professional training that is gained by working on real problems for real clients, where student analyses and reports could have an impact on actual public sector operations. The workshop teaches students to integrate their understanding of natural science, social science, policy studies, and management in order to solve practical problems. The project-teams work under the supervision of a faculty member and write a report analyzing an actual environmental policy or management problem faced by their clients.

To read the final report, please visit: http://www.notre-europe.eu/en/axes/competition-cooperation-solidarity/works/publication/power-to-the-people/.

The final reports of the other groups in the Workshop in Applied Policy Analysis may be viewed at: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/mpaenvironment/pages/news_workshop_sp07.html.

Information about the program and the courses is available online at http://www.columbia.edu/cu/mpaenvironment/. Prospective students visit classes and talk with students and faculty. For more information please email Louise Rosen at lar46@columbia.edu or call (212) 854-3142.