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Energy flows in a fertile environment drive societal development and progress. To develop a country sustainably, striking balance between environmental management, natural resource use, and energy generation is a must. However, developing a country with limited access to energy and critical levels of environmental depletion is challenging. This description fits Rwanda, which faces a dual crisis of energy supply shortages and environment depletion. Overpopulation is driving urban and agricultural expansion which in turn unbalance biomass demand to supply the growing energy needs and exacerbate environmental damage. Just when urgent actions must be taken to overcome this current debacle, political aspirations seek to turn Rwanda into a middle- and subsequently high-income country. From our analysis, the available energy resources can only maintain current population in Rwanda as a low-income country. To become an average middle-income country, Rwanda needs an equivalent of 3 Mtoe /yr (≈20 Mbbl /yr) of oil imports, and must install a nominal capacity of 90 GW of solar photovoltaics (PV). For a high-income country, it is necessary to obtain an extra power input of 11.4Mtoe /yr (≈77 Mbbl /yr) of oil imports and to install a nominal capacity of 400 GW of solar PV. Comparing current power generation capacity in Rwanda against the extra power needed to achieve the middle-income and high-income status indicates a mismatch between available resources and developmental goals.

The increasing frequency of extreme weather events is a consequence of changing climate. The direct physical causes are carbon dioxide emissions from the intensive use of fossil fuels and accelerated soil and plant decomposition from alterations in land use. Efforts to avoid a global environmental calamity and engineer a shift towards a more sustainable path are at the forefront of global agenda. However, beyond all the commitments and good intentions, there is no consensus on what constitutes sustainability, the requirements for a power transition towards a post-carbon era, or the energy resources available to achieve economic goals. This dissertation aims to clarify the relationship between energy and sustainability. We begin with a review of capacity factors for the leading power technologies at a global and regional scale to understand performance of these technologies and their potential. To address the challenge of evaluating sustainability, we propose a new approach, the eight-dimensional sustainability octagon. This approach broadens the fundamental pillars of sustainability (social, environmental, and economic), and provides a simple yet robust tool for comparing the sustainability of countries on the Earth. This analysis shows that the world is performing at one-third of achievable sustainability levels. Afterwards, we assess current global energy mix from a primary power perspective and estimate energy savings from- and limitations of electrification. We evaluate the power requirements, nominal power to be installed, infrastructure needs, and carbon dioxide emissions associated with replacing current fossil electricity generation mix with renewables. This evaluation indicates that complete decarbonization of the global power mix is impossible by 2050, and electrification could further delay decarbonization. At a single country level (case study), we analyze connections between the ongoing energy-environmental crisis and population growth to assess the feasibility of achieving the government of Rwanda’s developmental goals, given available power resources. We evaluate Lake Kivu in Rwanda as a complex methane source and energy system. We assess the implicit risks and environmental impacts of large-scale methane production to generate electricity. From our analysis, Rwanda is overpopulated, and the available energy resources can only secure low incomes for the population.

Smart skins are integrating an increasing number of functionalities in order to improve the interaction between the systems they equip and their ambient environment. Here we have developed an electromechanical soft actuator with controlled surface texture due to applied thermal gradient via electrical voltage. The device was fabricated and integrated with optimized process parameters for a prepared heater element [doped PEDOT: PSS (poly-(3, 4 ethylenedioxythiophene): poly (styrene sulfonic acid))], a soft actuator (Ecoflex 00-50/ethanol) and overall packaging case [PDMS (polydimethylsiloxane)]. To study a potential application of the proposed smart skin, we analyze the fluid drag reduction in a texture controlled water flow unit. As a result, we obtained a reduction of approximately 14% in the skin drag friction coefficient during the actuation. We conclude that the proposed soft actuator device is a preferred option for a texture-controlled skin that reduces the skin drag friction coefficient.