RICOH

Ricoh is a global leader in the office automation industry and are strongly committed to both environmental management and sustainability.

The Ricoh Clean Energy Scholarship was initiated in 2010 by Ricoh Australia to support research by a postgraduate PhD student at the Centre for Energy Technology, University of Adelaide. Its aim is to attract the best students to undertake research into clean energy, consistent with Ricoh's mission to be a corporate leader in sustainability.

Ashok Kaniyal was recently awarded the Ricoh Clean Energy Scholarship and has commenced his studies in the School of Mechanical Engineering. Ashok's thesis will address investment strategies in renewable energy infrastructure, in particular barriers to the utilisation of renewable resources, such as remote locations far from the electricity grid. It will consider pathways for investment in these remote and geographically disparate renewable energy resources in a socially optimal manner by evaluating both the broader societal benefits and associated costs. For example, Ashok's first investigations have looked at the opportunity for long distance fibre optic cable telecommunications infrastructure to open a market for remote, off-grid geothermal energy resources.

Ashok's PhD will be co-supervised by CET Director Professor Gus Nathan and Professor Jonathan Pincus of the School of Economics.

Prior to commencing his PhD studies, Ashok worked for three years as an environmental engineering consultant with the professional services consulting organisation Aurecon and partially completed a Bachelor of Laws program. Ashok graduated with a B.E.(Hons) in mechanical engineering and a B.Finance from the University of Adelaide in 2007.

In announcing the Scholarship Gary Sproul, State Manager for Ricoh Australia stated that "environmental management and sustainability are an essential part of our business culture at Ricoh. It is our goal to enrich the communities in which we operate and through supporting this research we are not only supporting the University of Adelaide, we are also supporting the clean energy industry in vital environmental studies."

Please visit Ricoh's website for more information or Ashok Karniyal.