D4.1 Five demonstration implementation plans

D4.1 Five demonstration implementation plans

For all partner cities or counties, demonstration implementation plans (at least 5) will be developed (Task 4.1). By bringing together the knowledge gained in WP1, WP3 and linking to the activities planned in WP2, the plans will outline concrete steps for the ​demonstration phase helping to set the base for a successful implementation. The plans will include 1 modular living lab demonstration plan in Kenya, and 4 validation demonstration plans in Morocco, Ghana, Malawi and South Africa.

Executive summary

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 comprises Five demonstration Implementation Plans (for Kenya, Morocco, Ghana, Malawi and South Africa) and set up of the regional platform to satisfy deliverable 4.1. The five implementation plans and the regional platform set up have been collated in this one report.

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).

D1.5 Data storage repository

D1.5 Data storage repository

This deliverable report will describe the repository for managing and storing digital data for WP1 throughout the project. It will describe the key data management principles, notably in terms of data standards and metadata, sharing, archiving and preservation – activities within T1.3.

Executive summary

SESA – Smart Energy Solutions for Africa is a collaborative project between the European Union and nine African countries that aims at providing innovative energy solutions using decentralized renewables. This Data storage Repository Plan (DRP) report describes the approach for its repository environment based on how the data flows in relation to the development of the SESA Toolbox and the Evaluation Framework. This relates to WP1 itself as well as the data generated and used for activities in other WPs, both for the creation of content for the Toolbox and the Evaluation Framework’s various analysis and assessments about the energy solutions that are demonstrated, validated and replicated.

This repository environment is not meant to function as an open-science database and access is therefore intended to remain internal to SESA partners. Data intended to be made publicly available may flow through this environment before it will be shared via SESA’s publicly accessible dissemination channels and activities.

At the time of publication of this report the exact data stored in this repository environment is not yet defined. However, we can expect this data to be both quantitative and qualitative in nature and can contain raw, processed and (developed from this) output data. Additionally, the data could potentially be structured, semi-structured or even unstructured. Data can also vary in their levels of sensitivity. Data stored in this repository environment will be labelled with a sensitivity-indicator to ensure access permissions can be arranged accordingly. This means the more sensitive the data stored in the repository environment, the better access and security requirements will need to be for the selected platform. In addition to access and security, seven other ‘requirements categories’ were used for the selection process of the relevant repository platform.

There are three main but different data flows identified for the Data storage Repository environment. The conclusion is these are best served by three separate repositories. From a long-list of available platforms, the best candidates were identified based on the ‘requirements categories’ and a platform suggestion ensued. Final decisions are to be confirmed by the Project’s Steering Group. Implementation will follow once information is available of certain outstanding questions as well as more detailed insights for the process of data collection.

D2.1 SESA Capacity Building Plan

D2.1 SESA Capacity Building Plan

The aim of the plan is to provide an overview of the capacity building programme. It will be a single document resulting from the capacity and skills needs assessment on energy use in partner cities with all relevant stakeholders presenting a sound and tailored learning plan. The capacity plan will outline the learning topics/themes, the sequence, location and timing of training, capacity and skills building activities; the implementation of which will result capacity building, city-to-city cooperation and professional development

Executive summary

The Capacity Building Plan, developed through Smart Energy Solutions For Africa (SESA) project, intends to assist the SESA project and its partners and the local communities engaged to strategically identify capacity and skills development topics, methods and tools to support a further uptake of sustainable energy use in selected urban and rural areas in Africa known as “Living Laboratories” (“Living Labs” in short). The project Living labs are real-life test beds for innovative energy solutions, which will enable the project to experiment in different environments. The urban and rural areas under discussion are as follows: Kisumu and Homabay, Kenya (Demonstration Living Lab); Ga North Municipal Assembly and Atwima Nwabiagya, Ghana (Validation Living Lab); Alicedale, South Africa (Validation Living lab); Rural areas, Malawi (Validation Living Lab) and lastly, Marrakech, Morocco (Validation Living lab).

The Capacity Building Plan is informed by comprehensive capacity and skills needs assessments on energy use undertaken in five Living Lab countries mentioned above. The needs assessments for Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Morocco and South Africa will use qualitative research methods to 1) Assess the present capacity of local innovators and authorities on Sustainable Energy Development 2) Understanding the future capacity (desired state) based on the city’s vision for the Sustainable Energy Use, 3) Identifying gaps between present capacity and future desired skills, and 4) Selecting tools and training modules to fill these gaps.

This Capacity Building Plan consists of five chapters. Chapter 1 presents an overview of the Capacity Building Plan and its position. Chapter 2 describes the methodology used to develop the capacity needs and assessment and therefore the Capacity Building Plan, including the research methods, ethical consideration and limitations. This is followed by the capacity and skills needs assessments for Kenya, Malawi, Ghana, Morocco and South Africa in Chapter 3. The capacity and skills needs assessments for each country in Chapter 3 details the following: an overview of the country context and background; SESA’s Living Lab project sites in the country; The countries energy governance structure; the various policies, plans and strategies that are relevant to the country’s energy landscape; the present capacity of local innovators and authorities on sustainable energy development; the future capacity (desired state) based on the Living Lab’s city vision for the sustainable energy use; the gaps between present capacity and future desired skills identified; and the relevant tools and training modules to fill the gaps. Chapter 4. outlines the next steps to be undertaken for the Capacity Building Plan as well as the timelines for these steps. The concluding remarks together with some recommendation are provided in Chapter 5.

SESA First General Assembly and Regional Event: Creating together opportunities for economic development and social cohesion in Africa

SESA First General Assembly and Regional Event: Creating together opportunities for economic development and social cohesion in Africa

The past 25-28 October, 2022 the SESA consortium hosted its first General Assembly and Regional Event. 

The visit took place in Nairobi and Kisumu (Kenya) and gathered 46 representatives from the organisations part of the initiative. The activities were divided into three main events: The General Assembly which took place from 25-26 October in Nairobi, where partners got together in person for the first time to share achieved milestones, engage in collaborative work and define next steps for the project. The first Regional event took place from 27-28 October in Kisumu, involving the launch of the Kenya Living Lab in Katito, and finally, on the last day the Kenya Policy Dialogue addressing the topics of electric mobility and productive use of solar power. 

SESA First general assembly

The first session started with a welcome speech form SESA’s project coordinator, Magdalena Sikorowska, from ICLEI Europe. Addressed to partners attending onsite and online the coordinator described the agenda for the different activities and provided a general overview of the project main achievements for the first twelve months of the project. 

The main topic to be discussed revolved around the understanding of the local context related to each of the living labs, the goals SESA aims to achieve in this deployment phase, the correct way to measure the Key performance indicators and setting a start point for the data collection coming from the project’s results. 

After the introduction, each work package leader gave a resume of the actions, activities and milestones reached so far. The first work package, Toolbox and evaluation, led by Cenex Netherlands, provided a description of the subtasks regarding the SESA toolbox, which is in progress and in a phase of identification of the contents, review process and official approval before uploading to the platform. Furthermore, the corresponding InfoSpots implementation is underway. The leaders made a call for all the work packages to develop and contribute to the contents. 

For the second work package, Capacity building, city-to-city cooperation, and professional development, led by ICLEI Africa, some doubts and questions were raised regarding the capacity building tasks, during the breakout sessions programmed during the assembly more detailed discussions around the topics were clarified. Regarding the third work package: Technical and business partnerships, models and implementation plans, led by Smart Innovation Norway, the discussion around business models and plans was focused around the specific support needed for technical solutions/technology for the living labs, and encouraged the participants to share among their networks the Call for Entrepreneurs. 

For the fourth work package, Comparative demonstration and replication actions, led by Blekinge Institute of Technology, questions around the technical support were raised. The discussion surrounding the proposal for the country theme for the upcoming replication call, and updates on the implementation plans and set up of regional platforms, and the living documents around the demonstration sites. 

Regarding the fifth work package, Scale-up, bankability, commercialisation, and institutionalisation, led by Technische Universitat Berlin, raised some questions regarding policy dialogues, processes and suggestions. For the sixth work package: Exploitation and Dissemination, led by F6S, updates on the dissemination and communication strategy and deployment were shared with the consortium, updates on specific KPIs and gathering questions for the workshop on how to effectively communicate with SESA’s stakeholders were gathered. 

For the seventh, eighth and ninth work packages, Project coordination and management, ethics and ethics requirements, the coordination shared general updates and introduced the following discussion around the living labs. 

The SESA Living Labs

For the discussion around the first batch of living labs the different local leaders of the sites shared the challenges identified and lessons learned so far. 

For the Kenya Living Lab, the main outcomes were local labour employment and skill transfer​,investment in training required to close knowledge gaps at the local level, use of prefabricated structures, the importance of site identification and due diligence cannot be overstated, supplier and vendor due diligence​, community awareness and participation​, and advocacy and interaction with local governments​. 

For the Ghana Living Lab, the main updates are planning for face-to-face workshops at regional centres, the expected academic outcomes from sustainable energy to develop and promote, and sharing of the open platform to share capacity building resources. 

For the Malawi Living Lab, the latest updates are the testing of the cooking solution and biomass testing for this. The local team emphasised the importance of the development of their cost-effective biomass cooking solution, and the benefits in improving indoor air quality, recovery of nutrients by producing secondary bio.products, and supporting local entrepreneurs and community. 

For the Morocco Living Lab, the updates shared focused on the identification of stakeholders, planning and deployment of capacity building actions, the ongoing discussion on innovative business models development with the Urban demonstration team, and the definition of the site for the solution to be deployed. 

For the South Africa Living Lab, the conversation and state of the activities was focused on the implementation guidelines for the living lab, potential business models, training for stakeholders with regional training and innovation centres established, and CO2 mitigation potential of the solution. 

The outcomes of this session were discussed in depth in a workshop session that took place the second day of the assembly where each of the partners involved in the implementation of the living labs defined KPIs, objectives and next steps. 

Working sessions

The second day of the General Assembly was focused on two main workshops. From KPIs to data collection: How to efficiently and clearly work together? Where each of the Living Lab teams spend some time defining and clarifying objectives and next steps to bring the expected results from the sites to completion. 

Afterwards, the session How to effectively use online channels to engage with SESA’s stakeholders focused mainly on SESA’s communication strategy, best practices were discussed and the consortium got the chance to explain needs and requirements for the upcoming months. 

Kenya Living Lab Launch and Peer to Peer Exchange

On the third day, the consortium travelled to Kisumu (Kenya) for the Launch of the Living Lab in Katito implemented by consortium organisation WeTu. WeTu aims to deliver sustainable and innovative solutions for clean energy, safe water and better mobility across rural Kenya.

The event started with a visit from the consortium members to the site, where the team got to know the installations and chat with the members on site.

The official launch started with the official welcome to Katito by the Chief of the local area, then an introduction of the Living Lab by Tilmann Straub, WeTu Director, followed by the speech of the Governor of Kisumu County, Prof. Nyong’o. To finalise, SESA Coordinator Magdalena Sikorowska addressed the attendees, which included members of the community as well as the SESA team. 

First SESA Policy Dialogue

The last day, the first regional event took place at the Sovereign Hotel in Kisumu. The Kenya policy dialogue is the first of the 5 policy dialogues (4 in Africa + 1 in Europe back to back with the SESA final event), planned for the project. 

The discussion focused on two main topics: Energy and Transport policy landscape in Kenya. The introduction of the productive use of solar was in charge of Madeleine Raabe, form Wuppertal Institute, followed by a panel discussion about Renewable energy and productive use, where the invites got the chance to provide an overview of the policies current state and how the SESA project could contribute to move forward.

The panel was attended by Ephren Ouma, Director Petroleum and Electricity, Kisumu CountyGovernment; Joseph Oganga, Chief Officer Energy and Industrialization, Kisumu County Government; Josephine Osengo, Communication Specialist, Practical Action and Kiragwe Mugwe, Sr. Energy Engineer, European Investment Bank. 

For the second half, the introduction to the topic of Electric, Shared mobility – Case of two-wheelers was in charge of Lakshmi Bhamidipati, Advisor – Energy and Climate at UNEP. Followed by a panel discussion on e-mobility moderated by Charles Wagura, UN-Habitat; and attended by Martin Eshiwani, Head of Unit, Road Transport Services, Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure; Joseph Oganga, Chief Officer Energy and Industrialization, Kisumu County Government and Stephen Omondi WE!Hub Victoria Limited. 

The outcomes from the sessions will contribute to the setting up of future policy recommendations on behalf of the SESA consortium. Overall, the General Assembly proved to be a much needed event for partners and community, where the interactions between the project and onsite stakeholders were fruitful and provided a clearer understanding on the needs and next steps to be taken by the project.