RCREEE and RES4Africa to Jointly Promote Renewable Energy Deployment

December 2020: Renewable Energy Solutions for the Mediterranean and Africa (RES4Africa Foundation) and the Regional Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (RCREEE) join forces to promote sustainable energy policies, technologies and solutions in the South- and East-Mediterranean and Sub-Saharan African region.

The two institutions signed a memorandum of understanding on 30 November 2020 agreeing to share knowledge and expertise relating to renewable energy technological advancements, policy and financial mechanisms as well as business models and best practices.

The two parties will also work closely on organizing capacity development programs, webinars and missions equipping participants, from various backgrounds, with technical, economic and regulatory knowledge on specific identified renewable themes. The capacity building programs will also offer participants tools to assess the most appropriate solutions in different energy contexts for an efficient and effective integration of renewables in emerging electricity markets. Sharing the same vision about the crucial role played by education in the development process, RCREEE will also take part to the training activities traditionally organized by RES4Africa, namely the Advanced Training Course and the Micro-Grid Academy. The ATC is a two-weeks annual training course which provide high-achieving individuals serving in public institutions, companies, universities and research centres with technical, economic and regulatory knowledge on specific themes; on the other hand, the MGA is a vocational capacity building addressed to young people profiles to empower the local technical workforce.

Additionally, RCREEE and RES4Africa will explore potentials and opportunities for untapped renewable energy options including water desalination, the water-energy-food nexus approach, small PV solutions, storage and electric mobility. This comes as a response to the need for increased regional cooperation to build capacities to mitigate existing barriers to renewable energy investment and markets specially in the light of the region’s great potential and progress in sustainable energy fields.

RCREEE Acting Executive Director, Dr. Maged K. Mahmoud said: “The cooperation with RES4Africa adds greatly to our efforts to advance renewable energy, particularly in the capacity building domain. Given RES4Africa strong knowledge base and experience in the field of training programs and vocational capacity building activities, we see a great potential for our joint cooperation to further push renewable energy profile and to establish multilateral dialogue platforms for Mediterranean and African parties. We would aspire that this also would allow the provision of institutional expertise and the capabilities of the Arab private sector to serve the African continent”

“RES4Africa moved its first steps in the Mediterranean area, from which we started to operate throughout the whole Africa” commented RES4Africa Foundation Secretary General Roberto Vigotti “Creating consciousness about renewables and a skilled local workforce is essential to the deployment of renewable energy in Africa, and this is why training and capacity building is a key pillar of RES4Africa’s operate. The cooperation with a partner like RCREEE, which shares with us the same vision and mission both geographically and strategically, adds a great value to our work.”

About RES4Africa Foundation:

Renewable Energy Solutions for Africa (RES4Africa) Foundation promotes the deployment of large scale and decentralised renewable energy in African markets to meet local energy needs for growth. RES4Africa gathers a member network from across the clean energy value chain and supports the creation of an enabling environment for renewable energy investments and strategic partnerships.

For more information about RES4Africa, please visit www.res4africa.org

About the Regional Center for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (RCREEE):

The Regional Center for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (RCREEE) is an intergovernmental organization with diplomatic status that aims to enable and increase the adoption of renewable energy and energy efficiency practices across Pan-Arab countries. RCREEE is the official technical arm institution of both League of Arab State – Energy Department and Arab Ministerial Council for Electricity (AMCE).

RCREEE teams-up with governments, international organizations, IFIs and Private Sector via several forms of partnerships to initiate and lead clean energy policy dialogues, strategies, technologies, managing the facilitation of RE investment platforms and capacity development in order to increase Arab states’ share of tomorrow’s modern energy solutions.

For more information about RCREEE, please visit www.rcreee.org