Experts from Senegal and Burkina Faso will meet in Dakar from 12 to 14 March 2019 to initiate an assessment of the role of small-scale renewable energy systems in contributing to broader energy transitions in West Africa.
The assessment constitutes the first phase of the multi-year ProGREEN (Promoting Gains in Renewable Energy) project, led by START and supported by the Research Fund of Québec.
ProGREEN’s primary focus is to advance understanding of renewable energy in West Africa. It will focus on the conditions that enable or constrain growth of renewable energy, as well as the impacts of renewable energy access on agriculture, water, health and other dimensions.
This focus will help bring deeper understanding of how increased access to small-scale off-grid renewable energy can impact national development priorities and progress towards National Action Plans for Renewable Energies (NAPR) under the Renewable Energy Policy of ECOWAS (REPC), the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Climate Accord, and progress towards achieving the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.
The nine months assessment effort will culminate in a validation workshop in November 2019 and in a final report with key messages for relevant actors, along with identification of remaining critical knowledge gaps.
