The role of energy in wealth and development is evident but the manner that a population’s access to energy effects overall growth is unclear. Understanding the role of energy in society can impact policies to push improvement in underdeveloped countries. Therefore, it is necessary to know how energy improves quality of life and what improvements need to be made to provide the necessary resources to underdeveloped populations. The first half of the thesis focuses on the role of energy use in society and its effect on human development. It is established that underdeveloped countries are in fact positively affected from increased energy access. Additionally, that the use of renewables will improve all the aspects of human development: health, wealth, and education. These results suggest that policy makers should focus on increasing clean energy in developing countries to also improve overall development. The second half shifts to the design and characterization of a water tunnel and the role it has in understanding fluid flow for near-wall visualization. Using refractive index matching (RIM) this experimental method can be used to study micro-surfaces that could improve efficiency in transportation or renewable energy. The water tunnel herein can achieve turbulent flows, unlike previous RIM designs.