Purpose: This paper aims to share the University of Strathclyde’s experience of embedding research-based education for sustainable development (RBESD) within its undergraduate curricula through the use of an innovative pedagogy called Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP), originated at Georgia Institute of Technology.Design/methodology/approach: This paper discusses how aligning VIP with the SDG framework presents a powerful means of combining both research-based education (RBE) and education for sustainable development (ESD), and in effect embedding RBESD in undergraduate curricula.Findings: The paper reports on the University of Strathclyde’s practice and experience of establishing their VIP for Sustainable Development programme and presents a reflective account of the challenges faced in the programme implementation and those envisaged as the programme scales up across a higher education institution (HEI).Research limitations/implications: The paper is a reflective account of the specific challenges encountered at Strathclyde to date after a successful pilot, which was limited in its scale. While it is anticipated these challenges may resonate with other HEIs, there will also be some bespoke challenges that may not be discussed here.Practical implications: This paper offers a practical and scalable method of integrating SDG research and research-based education within undergraduate curricula.Social implications: The paper has the potential to deliver SDG-related impact in target communities by linking research-based teaching and learning with community outreach.Originality/value: The alignment of VIP with the SDG research area is novel, with no other FE institutions currently using this approach to embed SDG research-based teaching within their curricula. Furthermore, the interdisciplinary feature of the VIP programme, which is critical for SDG research, is a Strathclyde enhancement of the original model.

As higher education institutions (HEIs) have increasingly turned to consider sustainability over the last decade, education for sustainable development (ESD) has emerged as a way of imbuing students with the skills, values, knowledge, and attributes to live, work, and create change in societies facing complex and cross-cutting sustainability challenges. However, the question of how HEIs can actively embed ESD more broadly in and across curricula is one that continues to challenge institutions and the HE sector as a whole. While traditional teaching practices and methods associated with subject-based learning may be suitable for educating students about sustainable development, a re-orientation towards more transformational, experiential and action-oriented methods is required to educate for sustainable development. The need for educators to share their practices and learn lessons from each other is essential in this transformation. This paper presents a selection of practical examples of how to embed a range of interactive, exploratory, action-oriented, problem-based, experiential and transformative ESD offerings into HE teaching practice and curricula. Presented by a group of academics and professional services staff at the University of Strathclyde who lead key modules and programmes in the institution’s ESD provision, this paper reflects on five approaches taken across the four faculties at Strathclyde (Humanities and Social Sciences, Science, Engineering and the Strathclyde Business School) and examines the challenges, practicalities and opportunities involved in establishing a collaborative programme of ESD.

Over the past eight years, off-grid systems, in the form of stand-alone solar home systems (SHSs), have proved the most popular and immediate solution for increasing energy access in rural areas across the Global South. Although deployed in significant numbers, issues remain with the cost, reliability, utilization, sustainability and scalability of these off-grid systems to provide higher-tiered energy access. Interconnection of existing stand-alone solar home systems (SHSs) can form a microgrid of interconnected prosumers (i.e., households owning SHS capable of producing and consuming power) and consumers (i.e., households without an SHS, and only capable of consuming power). This paper focuses on the role of a smart energy management (SEM) platform in the interconnection of off-grid systems and making bottom-up electrification scalable, and how it can improve the overall sustainability, efficiency and flexibility of off-grid technology. An interconnected SHS microgrid has the potential to unlock latent generation and storage capacity, and so effectively promote connected customers to higher tiers of energy access. This approach can therefore extend the range of products currently used by people located in the remote areas of developing countries to include higher-power devices such as refrigerators, TVs and potentially, electric cookers. This paper shows the results of field studies in the Northern Province of Rwanda within off-grid villages where people mainly rely on SHSs as a source of electricity. These field studies have informed further simulation-based studies that define the principal requirements for the operation of a smart energy management platform for the interconnection of SHSs to form a community microgrid.

This paper lays out a methodology that could be used by mini-grid developers to assess the design readiness and future design requirement to accommodate electric cooking (eCook). While mini-grids in developing countries continue to grow in popularity, typically their designs are not yet sufficiently developed to accommodate large power appliances. Moving towards clean cooking using electricity will cause technical risks for mini-grids in terms of voltage drop, voltage unbalances and capacity shortage. In this paper, these parameters are studied on a mini-grid network modeled in OpenDSS/MATLAB as a simulation platform, where the selected mini-grid topology is hub and spoke. Two network studies are considered, the first investigates the limitations of the mini-grid in terms of the generation capacity available to supply the demand for different levels of eCook penetration, while the second focuses on the network constraints for different eCook penetrations. In general, the results show that voltage drop and voltage imbalance issues can be reasonably and affordably addressed by using cables of a larger cross-sectional area. The main issue prohibiting higher penetrations of eCook centre on generation capacity requirements, which led to a techno-economic analysis being conducted to assess future mini-grid sizes as well as targeting economic and environmental objectives and meeting the overall demand on a generically representative mini-grid in a rural region in East Africa. The discussion section in this paper highlights the main barriers to the accommodation of eCook on rural mini-grids and presents suggestions for future work that addresses new design specifications for the next generation of eCook mini-grids.

As higher education institutions (HEIs) have increasingly turned to consider sustainability over the last decade, education for sustainable development (ESD) has emerged as a way of imbuing students with the skills, values, knowledge, and attributes to live, work, and create change in societies facing complex and cross-cutting sustainability challenges. However, the question of how HEIs can actively embed ESD more broadly in and across curricula is one that continues to challenge institutions and the HE sector as a whole. While traditional teaching practices and methods associated with subject-based learning may be suitable for educating students about sustainable development, a re-orientation towards more transformational, experiential and action-oriented methods is required to educate for sustainable development. The need for educators to share their practices and learn lessons from each other is essential in this transformation. This paper presents a selection of practical examples of how to embed a range of interactive, exploratory, action-oriented, problem-based, experiential and transformative ESD offerings into HE teaching practice and curricula. Presented by a group of academics and professional services staff at the University of Strathclyde who lead key modules and programmes in the institution’s ESD provision, this paper reflects on five approaches taken across the four faculties at Strathclyde (Humanities and Social Sciences, Science, Engineering and the Strathclyde Business School) and examines the challenges, practicalities and opportunities involved in establishing a collaborative programme of ESD.

In this paper, eCook batteries are considered to be synonymous with those electric cooking devices (eCook), such as electric pressure cookers, induction cookers, hotplates or rice cookers, that can be connected to and supplied from a battery, which may or may not be fully integrated within the device. Connecting many eCook batteries can have an impact on the operation of a hybrid photovoltaic (PV)/diesel mini-grid network unless managed appropriately. The network could experience voltage fluctuations, system power losses and increased peak demand if all or most of the connected eCook batteries charge during a relatively “narrow” window of sunlight hours. Hence, this paper focuses on maximizing the number of eCook devices accommodated by the mini-grid, in keeping with increased consumer uptake, by regulating the charging rate (C-rate) of the eCook batteries themselves. The impact of varying the C-rate on the network constraints is assessed through a range of contextualized case studies. This entailed modeling an innovative smart eCook battery management system (EBMS) that actively monitors the state of the grid and decides on the eCook’s battery C-rate set-point required to address the network constraints. The results demonstrate that the EBMS can alleviate the impact of conventional eCook battery charging on the mini-grid network, as well as increase the quality of the charging service.