Official Launching of the African Union Commission Research Grant Project

In the framework of the African Union Commission Research Grants Open Call for Proposals – 2011, the ECOWAS Regional Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (ECREEE) in collaboration with l’Institut International d’Ingénierie de l’Eau et l’Environnement (2iE) from Burkina Faso, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) from Ghana and SIREA-ENERGIE (SIREA) from France, have been awarded a grant for a research project entitled: Development of a Cost-effective, modular and Dry Concentrating Solar Power for Africa: Design and Test of Components.

The 3-year project will receive a Grant amount of 743,096.38 EURO for a total budget of 1 million EURO.  The project is financed through the Financing Agreement between the European Commission and the ACP Group of States under the ACP Research for Sustainable Development Program of the 10th EDF Intra-ACP Envelop.

ECREEE’s role will be to monitor and disseminate the outcome of the research conducted by West African universities in the field RE , particularly in solar energy.

A 3-day kick-off meeting from the 7th of May was held at the ECREEE’s headquarters in Praia, Cape Verde. . During the meeting which featured delegates from 2ie (Burkina Faso), KNUST (Ghana) and SIREA (France), agreements were reached in terms of budget and deliverables and also specific agreements were elaborated among institutions in order to assure a smooth conduct and follow-up of the activities. The end of the meeting witnessed the official launch of the project.