The Clean Energy Solutions Center, in partnership with the United Nations (UN) Foundation’s Energy Access Practitioner Network, offered this no-cost webinar on current approaches to developing local capacity by institutionalizing training on rural electrification in developing countries.

The webinar will benefit those who are interested in off-grid electrification and the educational aspects of developing needed capacity to install, service and maintain renewable energy off-grid solutions in a range of African contexts. It focuses on the work of two practitioner network member institutions and their work in integrating courses related to the installation and maintenance of renewable energy solutions into national curricula. Two expert practitioners share their experience in three African countries—lMali, Burkina Faso and Ethiopia—through the ongoing work of Électricité De France (EDF) and Stiftung Solarenergie’s solar training academy.

Panelists

Overview of the Importance of Training for Long-Term Sustainability in Energy Access Projects

Richenda Van Leeuwen, Executive Director, Energy and Climate, Energy Access Initiative, UN Foundation
Richenda Van Leeuwen is Executive Director, of the Energy and Climate, Energy Access Initiative team overseeing the UN Foundation's work on energy access. She joined the UN Foundation in 2010 from Good Energies, a global renewable energy investment company. A sought-out speaker on energy access and poverty issues, she has more than 20 years of executive management experience with the United Nations, the private sector, and non-profits on several continents. Van Leeuwen has a range of expertise encompassing not only emerging markets commercial investment in renewable energy technologies, but also the application of a range of renewable energy technologies for poverty alleviation, including business, financing and investment models to support scaling of Base of the Pyramid markets in developing countries. She also has many years of experience leading micro-, small, and medium-sized enterprise investment activities and projects in Africa, Asia, and the Americas with a focus on gender equity, as well as experience in refugee issues and post-conflict reconstruction particularly gained in SE Asia and the Balkans. She serves on the board of SELCO India, a leading renewable energy social enterprise focusing on energy solutions for poor families in India.

Institutionalizing Energy Training on Rural Electrification: Lessons Learned from Mali and Burkina Faso

Christine Heuraux, Director of Training Support, Électricité de France (EDF)
Christine Heuraux, graduated in German from L’Ecole Normale Supérieure, gaining a doctorate in German literature. In 1983, she began her career at Charbonnages de France then she joined EDF Group in charge of the Group’s strategy in Germany. From 2007 to 2011, as the director of the EDF Pole Access to Energy, her missions opened her new areas of competence towards developing countries and more specifically Africa. Since the beginning of 2012, she is the Director of capacity building and training at the International Development Division of EDF, managing among others the Facility Energy Project dedicated to” Vocational training and capacity building for rural electrification in Western Africa.” She has published two books " L’électricité au cœur des défis africains - Manuel sur l’électrification en Afrique" in 2010, then "La formation au cœur du développement – Réussir l’électrification rurale en Afrique subsaharienne" in 2011.

Institutionalizing Training for Solar Technicians and Entrepreneurs: Lessons Learned from Ethiopia

Dr. Harald Schützeichel, Chairman, SunTransfer Sustainable Off-Grid Solutions; President, Stiftung Solarenergie - Solar Energy Foundation; President, the Global Off-Grid Lighting Association (GOGLA)
Dr. Harald Schützeichel (52) was CEO of S.A.G. Solarstrom AG, a solar PV multivendor company. Founded in 1998, Solarstrom AG is considered to be one of the pioneers of the solar sector. Following his work with Solarstrom AG, in 2004 he founded the StS International Network for Rural Development, which is a hybrid network of non-profit (Stiftung Solarenergie - Solar Energy Foundation) and for profit entities (SunTransfer; ISEI. International Solar Energy Institute). The network with offices in Europe, Africa and Asia follows a unique holistic approach, combining for-profit and non-profit sustainability. Harald Schützeichel is President of GOGLA (Global Off-Grid-Lighting Association), lecturer of business management and entrepreneurship at the University of Freiburg / Germany and author of numerous scientific publications.