Research Seminar: Stewart Isaacs

June 20, 2025

1:00 p.m. CAT

Room A203

Dust, Design and Decentralized Solar: Modeling and Mitigating Dust Impacts on PV in West Africa

Speaker: Stewart Isaacs, Ph.D.
Engineering Excellence Postdoctoral Fellow
Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, MIT

Abstract: The onset of climate change has spurred large-scale efforts toward a sustainable energy transition, but existing paradigms threaten to exclude the communities most exposed to climate hazards. This is true in sub-Saharan Africa, where by 2030, 85 percent of the world's population without modern access to electricity is projected to live. Decentralized solar systems, such as off-grid photovoltaics (PV), are a promising option to overcome challenges in increasing electricity access on the African continent. However, in West Africa, the annual Harmattan season brings dust-laden air from the nearby Sahara Desert, which can lead to significant losses in PV power production. In this talk, I demonstrate how relying on existing one-size-fits-all design paradigms undermine the reliability of decentralized PV in dust-heavy regions. I do this by developing data-informed computational approaches to 1) evaluate the limitations of employing remote sensing datasets commonly used in solar resource assessment and 2) quantify the effects of dust on PV systems in the region using context-informed modeling improvements. I then show how these approaches 3) inform novel and effective mitigation strategies that can be precisely applied at the subregional level. Overall, I conclude that a paradigm shift toward the decentralized design of energy systems can accelerate the implementation of reliable PV and ultimately enable a sustainable energy transition that is inclusive of all communities.

Bio: Stewart Isaacs is an engineering excellence postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research focuses on the development of decentralized energy systems that advance energy sovereignty in under-resourced communities. To do this, he develops and applies community-engaged computational and experimental techniques at the intersection of remote sensing, atmospheric science, and energy systems engineering.

Dr. Isaacs earned his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University and his M.S. and Ph.D. from MIT’s
Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He previously served as an inaugural Archer-Cornfield Teaching
Fellow at Ashesi University and a lecturer at MIT's development-focused D-Lab. Isaacs frequently collaborates with nonprofits and community leaders to implement energy infrastructure in communities around the world, supporting the design and installation of off-grid solar systems in Burkina Faso, Ghana, India, and Kenya.

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