Overview

Professor Will Childress is immersed in a complicated, high-stakes quest. A large grant from the U.S. Department of Energy enables him to begin a research project to pursue new techniques in photovoltaics that will bring low-cost electricity to 1.2 billion people who now have no access to electricty in developing countries. He teams up with professors and students at the Indian institute of Science in Bengaluru and an Indian solar panel manufacturer to invent a radical transformation of existing solar technology. Yet the complexities of university policies, the cutthroat competitiveness of industry leaders, and the dangers of becoming involved in war-torn Kashmir create obstacles that threaten to block the way. A young Kashmiri graduate student emerges as a key contributor as she outsmarts hackers, rebel leaders, and red tape. But can she and Childress successfully frustrate the murderous intent of enemies as well? Power Void seeks to describe the interlocking roles played by private firms, government agencies, and research universities in developing and making available transformative new technologies. It also shows how intense competition can often lead to unintended, and even illegal, consequences. While the characters and events in Power Void are fictitious, the problems and potential solutions described are quite real.

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9781948796286

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Edward Vickery is an economist with a long-held interest in economic development. He was the Executive Director for ten years of a consortium of 34 U.S. research universities that performed training and economic development research for U.S.A.I.D. He also served for nine years as Executive Director of the Electric Power Research Center at North Carolina State University and was a consultant for the World Bank in developing countries. He holds degrees in engineering (BE, Vanderbilt), business (MBA, Harvard), and economics (PhD, University of Chicago). He served as team leader for the Western (Ontario) University exchange project with the University of Ghana, teaching at Legon, Ghana from 1969-73. He is retired and lives in Connecticut.

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