ECREEE AND JEAN PIAGET UNIVERSITY OF CABO VERDE TO EXPLORE PARTNERSHIP OPPORTUNITIES

Praia, 10/April/19 – The ECOWAS Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (ECREEE) and the Jean Piaget University of Cabo Verde held a meeting, where both sides discussed opportunities to engage in a partnership to promote sustainable energy development. At the meeting, ECREEE presented among other initiatives, the Regional Off-Grid Electrification Project (ROGEP) covering 19 countries.

As part of its mandate to promote sustainability through renewable energy and energy efficiency, ECREEE has been forging, in the last six months, crucial partnerships at the national, regional and international levels with stakeholders, whose role are very important to promote sustainable energy development.

A good example of the ECREEE’s strong engagement was the signing of an important Memorandum of Understanding with the International Solar Alliance, aiming at mobilizing funds, strengthen policies, regulation, legal and institutional framework support to expand markets and ensure an adequate coverage of sustainable solar energy. Another highlight was the partnership forged with SolarWind targeting the implementation of solar projects with applications on solar pumps for irrigation and drinking water, solar mini-grids, rooftop solar PV systems, solar e-mobility, etc. Moreover, ECREEE and the Agency for Rural Electrification (ARE) have pledged to support Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and start-ups to upscale decentralized renewable energy and cross-sectoral by promoting sustainable energy policies, fit-for-purpose financing, innovative technologies and business solutions globally.

In this relentless effort, the Centre has met with the University Jean Piaget of Cabo Verde in order to explore partnership opportunities. The ECREEE delegation composed by Mr. Festus Amoyaw, Acting Coordinator of ROGEP, Mr. Collins Osae, Monitoring and Evaluation Expert and Mr. Joarel Barros, Communication Officer, was received by a delegation composed by eight people of the university. Among those, Mr. Wlodzimierz Szymaniak, Dean, Mr. Jorge Brito, Honorary Dean, Mrs Roseli Monteiro, Administrator, Mrs Gertrudes de Oliveira, Pro-rector, Mr. João Pereira, Director of the Architecture Unit, Mr. Dilson Pereira Director of the Science and Technology Unit and Mr. Evandro Fonseca, Coordinator of computer engineering laboratory.

Mr. Amoyaw shed light on the mandate of ECREEE, explaining how the establishment of the Centre is an effective answer to mitigate the energy deficit in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), taking into consideration the leading role-played among the Member States to set up policies, targets and action plan towards renewable energy and energy efficiency. Mr. Amoyaw also stressed the importance of partners such as AECID, ADA, EU and World Bank, in enabling the Centre to achieve concrete results. The Acting Coordinator spoke about the scope of the World Bank-funded ROGEP, as a pathway to achieve a higher energy access rate to the 19 countries covered by the project, as it envisages the enhancement of the use of standalone solar systems (solar lanterns, solar home systems, solar water pumps, solar mills, etc.).

Ms. Roseli Rocha Monteiro, Administrator of the university, presented some of the achievements of the college such as the design and construction of the first intelligent building in Cabo Verde, which is a remarkable step towards efficiency. Other members of the delegation suggested a partnership to efficiently use renewable energy in agriculture, a field in which the university is very much interested.  In the weeks ahead, the university will layout a proposal, detailing potential areas of collaboration with ECREEE.