Research/Energy Harvesting WDKA student make a difference

Considering the domain of Energy Harvesting can a WdKA student make a difference?

Isn't this field dominated by hard and complex technology?
Regarding efficiency and commercialisation isn't this a subject for big companies only?

Indeed this field is technical. It is even so technical that people that are not really specialized stay away from it.
But society needs this field to be understood by all people.

• Because energy is one of the scarcities of our planet.
• Generating energy is depleting resources.
• Waisting energy is nearly "criminal".
• Consuming too much energy is contributing to climate change, rising sea levels, shifting climate zones

So
Designers can come up with projects which can function locally on a small and human scale.

Design can make technology acceptable by adding an esthetical and human form.

Design can make you understand how to work with equipment, by making the interafce understandable.

Designers can imagine ways to make people care for their energy generating equipment. This can mean that even low tech equipment can have an acceptable efficency. When energy is generated locally the cost of transportation of energy and all the losses of transforming energy on the way to the place where it is used are reduced considerable.

These arguments mean that WdKA students as designers and as idealists, striving for a better world can make a difference, by making the technology available for ordinary people, by making people care for energy production and consumption, by creating networks of knowledge about ways to generate energy locally and low tech.

An example is the Energy Square project of Otske Pennin. She included in her list of kinds of energies not only sunlight, wind and the potential energy of rain falling down also "spiritual energy". Spiritual energy in her case is the well being and motivation of people, caring for low tech ways to make sure energy is generated, stored and employed in the best way possible.
References to efficiency and low tech can also be found here: [1]

will be continued --- text work in progress