The creation of ren-PEACE

A group of four friends that shared a sincere concern about extreme poverty met in Trondheim, Norway in April 2010 with the idea of establishing a volunteer organization through which they could contribute to the cause of poverty alleviation with their competence and time. These four friends also shared the same training, Electrical Engineering, and believe that Universal Access to Energy through the exploitation of Renewable Energy Sources is one effective way to mitigate extreme poverty. The founders, who spend most of their time at Universities, have engaged themselves in teaching and have witnessed how students minds are being shaped, in the lecture rooms, in the corridors and in the many encounters casual or not with people that inhabit the University spaces. They have conceived the idea of employing the University environment and its young students to promote a new study model for the undergraduate and graduate students at Universities. This new idea was first experimented at NTNU in close collaboration with Engineers Without Borders Norway.

This is how the concept of Professors without Frontiers was born on that very day in Trondheim.

Professors without frontiers is based on the philosophy of Universality of Knowledge (Knowledge belongs to humanity and it is for the sake of humanity) which is at the heart of idea of University. In this context, Lobkowicz (1983) is quoted here in saying that:

“The unique mission of the university has been the pursuit of truth, manifold but finally unitary probing the universe and our place in it. An essential aspect of this quest for truth is the commitment to objectivity and openness to diverse values, interpretations and frames of reference”

This initiative is an effort to relate university teaching and research to global concerns of peace and sustained development. The members of ren-PEACE believe that in the struggle for this new global dispensation, universities have a vital role to play.

It therefore promotes the idea that through interdisciplinary collaboration and team work between University students, Staff, Non-Governmental Organizations, Research Institutions and Industry sustainable social development will be possible.

The New Study Model

The model proposed for the implementation of the idea presented above is to involve University students, through their undergraduate project and Master education, in the design of real development projects dedicated to electricity production from renewable energy sources. The Microgrid or Off the Grid solution is the way in which these projects are implemented.

Why Renewable Energy

Considering that Energy is the basic source of life on our planet (the sun is the source of Energy for the Earth), and being available everywhere in different forms, it can be made reachable to the small isolated populations in which extreme poverty prevails today, by donating knowledge, know how, and work by the volunteers of this Association and its partners and/or friends.