Bringing electricity to rural communities

WashU Engineering alumnus, Frank Bergh, BA ’08, uses his education to take electricity to remote regions of the world. Bergh has spent much of the past several years working to set up microgrids and off-grid solar energy systems in sub-Saharan Africa. He is now a senior electrical engineer with the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association International (NRECA), a non-profit cooperative, whose rural electrification initiatives have reached 160 million people in 65 developing countries since 1962. As NRECA’s first specialist on microgrids and renewable energy, Bergh is working on off-grid systems for rural communities and national electrification strategies for several countries in Africa.