The Edulink/REEP Steering Committee Meeting is an annual meeting between the two academic partners namely, the International Institute for Water and Environmental Engineering (2iE) and KNUST, whose staff and students are beneficiaries of the Renewable Energy Education Project (REEP) sponsored by the Edulink Programme of the European Unions Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Secretariat. The meeting was held in at the Kamboinse Campus of 2iE in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso on Monday 14th June, 2010 and was attended by key players in the field of renewable energy from both Ghana and Burkina Faso.

The overall objective of the annual meeting is to measure the success of work done as against the overall objective of the project. On the whole, the project is to contribute to knowledge sharing and skills through a network for the delivery of market driven education and training programmes in renewable energy systems that will increase access to modern energy services in the West Africa Sub-region.

Members of the committee discussed issues such as the short-courses in Solar PV, Biofuels and Biogas, which are organised annually in both countries.  Issues discussed included the training of field technicians and engineers in Solar PV and Biofuel Technologies. In the course of the meeting, there were several problems addressed, one of which included poor response from the main target group of engineers and technicians in the field. This problem was seen as one of the major deterrents of the set objective of REEP. Recommendations were therefore made as to how this challenge will be tackled, particularly the need for longer notices to give potential short course participants adequate time to prepare and intensification of fundraising efforts to provide partial sponsorship for interested participants who are unable to afford the course fees. 

Participants from Ghana included the Acting. Director of The Energy Center (Prof. Abeeku Brew-Hammond), the REEP Project Coordinator (Dr. David Anipa), the REEP coordinator-Learning MSc Programme Organiser (Dr. Gabriel Takyi) and two REEP Associates (Mr. Eric Ofori Nyarko of the Energy Commission and Mr. Samuel Adu-Asare of the Association of Ghana Solar Industries). Participants from Burkina Faso included the 2iE REEP Institutional Coordinator (Prof. Yezoumah Coulibaly), the 2iE REEP Programmes Organiser (Dr. Yao Azoumah) and a representative from one of the Burkinabe REEP Associates, the Electrification Development Fund (FDE, in French).

Please click here to download the presentations of the project coordinators, Dr. David Anipa and Prof. Yezoumah Coulibaly.

For more information on the Edulink/REEP please click here.