SOLTRAIN+ Southern African Renewable Heating and Cooling Training and Demonstration Initiative



Contract partner: AEE - Institut für Nachhaltige Technologien Country: Southern Africa, regional Funding amount: € 3.786.000,00 Project start: 01.01.2023 End: 31.12.2026

Short Description:

Overall goal


SOLTRAIN+ contributes to the transformation of predominantly fossil based energy systems to sustainable, affordable and carbon-free systems, by promoting the use of renewable heating and cooling (RHC) technologies such as solar thermal, heat pumps and energy efficiency measures. RHC demonstration systems in the buildings sector, industry/commerce, tourism and hospitals coupled with hands-on training are at the center of the initiative. The targeted countries are Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe. Through out-reach and awareness raising activities the SADC Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (SACREEE) will promote the expansion of the initiative to at least six additional SADC member states during the implementation period and to all SADC countries in long-term.


Expected results


Energy transition and decarbonisation accelerated by increasing the use of RHC technologies in the targeted SADC member states.


Well established expert community for RHC systems in targeted countries that implement institutionalized training at entry, mid and expert level.


195 RHC demonstration systems are co-funded and data on functionality, CO2 reductions and cost-savings is collected and disseminated.


Increased share of women participate in RHC training at entry, -mid and expert level through targeted interventions and bursaries and benefit from job opportunities in the renewable energy sector.

 


Target group / Beneficiaries


Approximately 5,870 persons will directly benefit from the interventions:

930 trainees and trained trainers in RHC technologies and energy audits;

1,118 representatives of governments, energy providers, private companies, universities and advocacy groups engaged through targeted information products and events;

242 energy experts;

3,500 participants in conferences and webinars

80 experts in gender and energy.

 


Activities


Capacity development: Further expansion and strengthening of institutionalized training on RHC including through hands-on and e-learning in universities, vocational training centres as well as other training structures and centres of competence.


Demonstration Systems: Co-funding of RHC demonstration systems (130 in buildings and 65 in industry/ commerce) with the involvement of trained practitioners with a guaranteed period of performance/functioning.


Women participation: Increase the number of women among students, practitioners and experts in the renewable energy sector through addressing identified barriers, targeted bursaries and other activities identified in the gender and diversity plan which will be developed by the project partners.


Awareness raising: targeted dissemination activities will be implemented at national, regional and international level to create interest and raise awareness about evidence created from RHC demonstration systems.

 


Context


SOLTRAIN+ builds on the achievement of the previous phases of the initiative. While it continues the well-established link between practice-oriented training and demonstration systems it focuses on ensuring the sustainability of the initiative by further strengthening the institutional capacity of SACREEE as well as the project partners in the SADC member states.

project number 2608-00/2022
source of funding OEZA
sector Energiegewinnung /erneuerbare Energiequellen
tied 0
modality Project-type interventions
marker Environment: 2, Climate change mitigation: 2, Gender: 1
  • Policy marker: are used to identify, assess and facilitate the monitoring of activities in support of policy objectives concerning gender equality, aid to environment, participatory development/good governance, trade development and reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health. Activities targeting the objectives of the Rio Conventions include the identification of biodiversity, climate change mitigation, climate change adaptation, and desertification.
    • 1= policy is a significant objective of the activity
    • 2= policy is the principal objective of the activity
  • Donor/ source of funding: The ADA is not only implementing projects and programmes of the Austrian Development Cooperation , but also projects funded from other sources and donors such as
    • AKF - Foreign Disaster Fund of the Austrian federal government
    • BMLFUW - Federal Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water
    • EU - Funds of the European Commission
    • Others - various other donors are listed in ADA’s annual business report.
  • Type of Aid – Aid modalities: classifies transfers from the donor to the first recipient of funds such as budget support, core contributions and pooled programmes and funds to CSOs and multilateral organisations, project-type interventions, experts and other technical assistance, scholarships and student costs in donor countries, debt relief, administrative costs and other in-donor expenditures.
  • Purpose/ sector code: classifies the specific area of the recipient’s economic or social structure, funded by a bilateral contribution.
  • Tied/Untied: Untied aid is defined as loans and grants whose proceeds are fully and freely available to finance procurement from all OECD countries and substantially all developing countries. Transactions are considered tied unless the donor has, at the time of the aid offer, clearly specified a range of countries eligible for procurement which meets the tests for “untied” aid.