Authors:

Judith Owigar, Stefanie Holzwarth, Emmanuel Biririza (UNH)

The Capacity Building Tools and Updates report, developed as part of the Smart Energy Solutions for Africa (SESA) project, outlines the project’s objectives and scope to strengthen knowledge across stakeholders, as well as the methodology used to achieve those. This report focuses on Work Package 2 (WP2), specifically Task 2.2 (T2.2) on Capacity Tools and Methodologies. It provides an overview of the capacity building plan, the development of E-learning modules for various SESA energy solutions, the hosting platform for these courses, regional platforms, and a database of experts. The report also discusses the integration of various guidelines and methodologies related to demonstration projects, climate resilience, and renewable energy solutions into the SESA toolbox and the linkages that the work undertaken has with other EU (but not only) projects and initiative with a similar scope of work.

The Capacity Building Plan for the SESA project, developed under Task 2.1, assessed the present capacity and identified capacity gaps for the Living Lab sites in Kenya, Ghana, Malawi, and South Africa. The identified capacity gaps revolved around several thematic areas, including policy and legal gaps, stakeholder and community knowledge and awareness, limited human and technical skills, restricted access to finance, and inadequate infrastructure. These findings informed the development of the Capacity Building Programme and the content for E-learning modules, besides various other activities and deliverables within the SESA project which are closer to the specific topics, ultimately aiming to bridge the identified capacity gaps in sustainable energy development in the target countries.

The SESA project has established Regional Platforms that supports the organization and coordination of regional teams and partners, aiming to maximize the adoption and replication potential of energy innovations tested within the project. These platforms facilitate a common implementation methodology, allowing detailed plans for demonstration actions, technical and operational aspects, business model adaptation, stakeholder engagement, and replication to be developed. The Regional Platforms are organized both geographically and thematically, promoting knowledge exchange, region specific capacity building, and replication across partner regions. Regional Training and Exchange activities are linked to project activities including capacity building, established within regional platforms.

The Capacity Building Programme within the SESA project encompasses an integrated e-learning initiative hosted by the NUA Campus platform, developed in collaboration with partners such as TUB, the Wuppertal Institute, and UN-Habitat. The programme provides free access to self-paced courses as well as webinars for a diverse audience, including students and civil society organizations. These courses aim to promote knowledge sharing and capacity building, with the potential to reach a broader audience beyond the project’s scope through online dissemination and YouTube channels. Currently, courses cover topics such as Solar Energy, Clean Cooking/Waste to Energy, and Electric Mobility, with additional courses in the pipeline for subjects like Second Life EV Batteries, Rural Internet Access, and Smart Microgrids . The training curricula encompass a wide range of materials related to technical aspects and related issues such as local and national policies (especially in the webinars), including slide decks, presentations, module outlines, handouts, quizzes, key background material, videos, and webinars.

In summary, this report plays a pivotal role in the SESA project’s mission to promote sustainable energy solutions in Africa by providing a comprehensive overview of capacity building tools, methodologies, and strategies tailored to the specific needs of the Living Labs in multiple African regions.

Authors:

TECNALIA: Amaia González Garrido, Eduardo García, Daniel Valencia Caballero, Elena Turienzo, Ander Zubiria Gómez, Ana Huidobro;

LEITAT: Natalia Rey, Eduard Borras, Daniele Molognoni;

Going Green: Chikondi Khonje;

Make It Green: Martin Karlsson;

RISE: Susanne Paulrud, Kent Davidsson

Deliverable D3.2 provides a guideline of the desired functional requirements related to the main energy technologies that could possibly be deployed in the SESA Living Labs, with special attention to the innovation degree, technology costs, expected performance, and their local end-users, covering households and rural communities, small businesses, tertiary sector, municipalities, the fishing and agricultural sector, educational and healthcare facilities, and e-mobility companies. The targeted audience of this deliverable, behind the SESA project, are the responsible entities of the Living Labs and project development partners, who will drive the implementation plans, and are responsible to select the appropriate technologies, systems, or solutions. Beside this primary target audience, the document can be of interest also for public and private sector professionals, such as equipment providers, project developers and local authorities beyond the SESA project. The ‘energy innovations’ (energy technologies of interest) covered in this Deliverable D3.2 have been specially selected from the draft implementation plans and actions which are planned to be deployed in the SESA Living Labs, including: solar photovoltaics, smart mini/microgrids, electric mobility, second life EV batteries, biomass to biogas (biodigester), and waste to energy for cooking (BioCooker), as well as the transversal topic of climate proofing. 

Authors:

Madeleine Raabe, María Yetano Roche

The present document is a complete and partner-validated draft of the Sustainable Energy Solutions catalogue which will be made available to the public in 2023. The catalogue has a two-fold aim:

● Internally: informs the implementation of SESA validation and replication sites (WP 4) and supports them by providing an introduction to the solutions that can be used in engagement with different actors (e.g., local government, civil society).

● Externally: informs and inspires outside audiences regarding the range of potential solutions and lessons learned during SESA implementation.

The catalogue is composed of ten factsheets. Each factsheet focuses on a specific sustainable energy solution or cross-cutting aspect. Factsheets cover both technological and business aspects of the solution, as well as other key dimensions that are relevant for the target audiences.

The catalogue is to be updated with lessons learnt from the implementation of the living labs over 2023 and 2024.

The development of the catalogue is led by Wuppertal Institute (WI) but each factsheet was co-created with inputs from stakeholders. Review rounds were central to the development process.

The list of factsheets was developed in consultation with partners, drawing from an identification of the main themes recurring in the living labs.

Authors:

Abdellah Abarkan, Judith Oginga Martins, Annica Skytt, Giles Thomson

This deliverable summarizes the on-going activities of Work Package 4 of the Sustainable Energy Solutions Africa (SESA) project (European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation framework programme under Grant Agreement No. 101037141). The SESA project involves a modular living lab demonstration action in Kenya, 4 validation demonstration projects in Morocco, Ghana, Malawi, and South Africa and 4 replication demonstration projects in Namibia, Rwanda, Tanzania and Nigeria.

This report constitutes Deliverable 4.2 (D4.2) of the SESA project. It comprises updates to the five demonstration Implementation Plans (for Kenya, Morocco, Ghana, Malawi and South Africa) that formed Deliverable D4.1 which was issued in July 2022. This report effectively supersedes D4.1 describing major activities taken up until September 2022 and where relevant, it also describes initial replication opportunities identified in the process.

This report contains five national Implementation Plans, each Implementation Plan has its own delivery team and contextually appropriate demonstration actions. The last section of the report outlines the setup of ‘regional platforms’ as a way to co-develop solutions and build capacity and funding opportunities between SESA activities happening across a wide geographic area.

The SESA project draws upon thematic experts from Europe and Africa from relevant fields of application to provide insights and guidance to the support co-development of the living labs. The implementation plans describe the context, need and implementation activities innovative energy solutions activities across the identified thematic areas in the different living lab locations. The identified thematic areas include:

– Solar energy: Kenya (test), Ghana (validation), South Africa (validation), Morocco (validation), Namibia (replication), Tanzania (replication), Nigeria (replication), Rwanda (replication)

– Clean cooking/ Waste to energy (Biogas for cooking): Ghana (validation), Malawi (validation), Rwanda (replication)

– Second life EV (Li-ion batteries) batteries: Kenya (test), South Africa (validation), Morocco (validation).

The experts involved in the development of the implementation plans will share their specific expertise and experience and provide technical advice related to feasibility, costs and benefits, and monitoring for good performance over the project lifetime. Experts will also support replicability of innovative measures. The direct involvement of international networks and initiatives will ensure a high level of visibility and replication of the innovations tested in this project.