Research domains
Six domains. 22+ active sub-disciplines. Deliberately broad — because the challenges of African urban energy require it.
Renewable energy
6 sub-disciplinesFrom solar sizing to grid reform — we research the full stack of how African communities generate, distribute, and pay for electricity.
Solar energy sizing
Optimal PV system design for residential, commercial, and mini-grid applications across Nigerian climate zones.
Smart metering & AMI
Advanced metering infrastructure, prepaid systems, and demand-side management across distribution networks.
Energy tariffs & regulation
Cost-reflective tariff design, subsidy reform, and regulatory frameworks for sustainable energy utilities.
Energy poverty & last-mile access
Mapping and measuring energy poverty indicators, household energy transitions, and last-mile electrification solutions.
Battery & storage systems
Lithium-ion economics, second-life batteries, and storage integration for off-grid and hybrid systems.
Energy finance & investment
Blended finance models, DFI engagement, carbon credits, and bankability frameworks for African energy projects.
Urban intelligence
4 sub-disciplinesUnderstanding how African cities grow, densify, and organise is prerequisite to any serious infrastructure planning.
Urban expansion modelling
Satellite-derived built-up area tracking, peri-urban sprawl analysis, and future land use projection.
Informal settlement analysis
Characterising unplanned settlements, assessing service deficits, and informing upgrading strategies.
Land use & zoning
Spatial analysis of land use patterns, zoning compliance, and mixed-use development indicators.
Mobility & accessibility
Last-mile connectivity, public transport gaps, and the relationship between settlement form and mobility costs.
Geospatial data
4 sub-disciplinesWe build and maintain geospatial datasets that make research reproducible and policy-relevant across the African continent.
NAIBA development
Building and maintaining the Nigeria Area Intelligence & Built-Asset Dataset — our flagship geospatial output.
Satellite & earth observation
Using SAR, multispectral, and LiDAR data to extract urban and infrastructure features at scale.
H3 hexagonal indexing
Applying Uber's H3 spatial indexing for consistent, multi-resolution analysis across Nigerian geographies.
Open data & reproducibility
Publishing research-grade datasets, methodology documentation, and open-source spatial tools for African researchers.
Energy economics
4 sub-disciplinesEnergy systems are economic and political systems. We analyse the institutional, financial, and policy conditions that determine infrastructure outcomes.
Electricity market design
Liberalisation models, IPP frameworks, and the political economy of power sector reform in Nigeria and across Africa.
Energy affordability & poverty
Household energy expenditure analysis, willingness-to-pay studies, and pro-poor policy design.
Carbon & climate finance
Carbon markets, climate adaptation finance, and their intersection with energy infrastructure investment.
Revenue & local governance
Local government fiscal capacity, internally generated revenue, and infrastructure investment cycles.
Health & environment
4 sub-disciplinesThe quality of built infrastructure — energy access, housing, water, sanitation — is a direct determinant of population health outcomes in African cities.
Health facility energy
Energy access at health facilities, cold chain reliability, and medical equipment power requirements in low-resource settings.
Indoor air pollution
Household fuel type, cooking emissions, and respiratory health outcomes in urban and peri-urban settlements.
Water, sanitation & energy
The intersection of water infrastructure, sanitation systems, and the energy required to operate and maintain them.
Health geospatial analysis
Spatial mapping of health outcomes, facility catchment areas, and service accessibility across Nigerian states.
AI & advanced analytics
6 sub-disciplinesWe apply machine learning, statistical modelling, and computational methods to extract insight from energy, urban, and geospatial data at scale.
Energy demand forecasting
Machine learning models for residential and commercial electricity demand prediction across Nigerian distribution networks.
Satellite image analysis
Deep learning applied to satellite imagery for settlement detection, roof classification, and land cover mapping.
Policy & document analytics
Natural language processing applied to regulatory documents, tariff filings, and policy texts for structured insight extraction.
Spatial machine learning
Geographically weighted models, spatial autocorrelation, and H3-indexed ML pipelines for infrastructure planning.
Econometric modelling
Causal inference, panel data methods, and structural models applied to energy access and urban development questions.
Research analytics & visualisation
Building open analytical tools, dashboards, and reproducible pipelines that make our research findings accessible and actionable.