Projekte

Kurzbeschreibung:

Projektziel

The Southern African Region (SADC) still faces significant challenges in energy development and usage. The Regional Infrastructure Development Master Plan highlights that only 5% of the population (about 300 Mio. people) of rural areas in the region has any access to electricity.

SADC Member States have an excellent solar irradiation and estimates suggest that solar thermal systems could meet about 70 – 80% of the regions low temperature heating and cooling demand. By investing in solar thermal systems the SOLTRAIN partner countries could avoid significant investment and running cost for power plants as well as for fuel imports.

The impact of SOLTRAIN III is to contribute to a renewable energy supply system, in particular solar thermal, thus contributing to poverty reduction.

The outcome of SOLTRAIN III is to strengthen the partner institutions and the governmental bodies of the partner countries in the implementation of their sustainable national solar thermal roll-out programs.

Erwartete Ergebnisse

The outputs of SOLTRAIN III are

- 12 policy workshops with 250 participants are carried out

- 500 persons are trained in 22 training courses on design, installation and maintenance of solar thermal systems

- 3 national Solar Thermal Roadmaps are developed in participative stakeholder processes in Botswana, Lesotho and Zimbabwe

- 6 national Solar Thermal Roadmaps are implemented in Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe

- 6 solar thermal statistics (one per partner country) on the development of the solar thermal markets are available and

- 100 solar thermal demonstration systems are installed, in operation and quality checked.

Zielgruppe

The target group are the about 750 participants of the different training courses. The beneficiaries are staff members, occupants and patients of social institutions, students, guest of tourism facilities like lodges and hotels as well as small and medium enterprises. It is estimated that about 7,000 persons will directly benefit from these demonstration systems by reducing their energy bills and by improving the hygienic standard.

The implementing agency of SOLTRAIN is AEE - Institute for Sustainable Technologies. AEE-INTEC is the Austrian think tank in solar thermal energy research, training and demonstration, which is active worldwide in this field for more than 25 years.

The local partners in the five SADC Member States are

- the Clean Energy Research Centre at the University in Botswana

- the Bethel Business and Community Development Centre in Lesotho

- the Renewable Energy & Energy Efficiency Institute des Polytechnics in Namibia

- the Science and Technology Park in Mozambique

- the Centre for Renewable and Sustainable Energy Studies at the University in Stellenbosch in South Africa

- Domestic Solar Heating Pvt. Ltd. in Zimbabwe and

- on SADC regional level the South African National Energy Development Institute is the local partner.

Maßnahmen

SOLTRAIN’s approach is based on the national and regional development targets as well as on the results and lessons learnt in the two previous phases. In order to be successful with a broad deployment of solar thermal systems in the SADC Region it is necessary to have a coherent strategy to promote this technology reflected in seven work packages:

- Work package number 1: policy support and roadmap implementation

- Work package number 2: monitoring, quality control and data acquisition

- Work package number 3: awareness raising and dissemination of results

- Work package number 4: training and research & development activities

- Work package number 5: support of industry

- Work package number 6: demonstration systems

- Work package number 7: project management, steering and evaluation

The work packages are targeted on all partners in the partner countries. Due to the different state of different political awareness and penetration of the solar thermal market the concrete work to be carried out is adjusted to the needs of the partner countries.

SOLTRAIN is contributing directly to the Sustainable Energy Goal 7.1. by providing clean energy directly (building up 100 demonstration systems) and by adjusting solar thermal technology to the needs in the partner countries.

Hintergrundinformation

Austria’s engagement in the SADC Region is based on SADC’s regional development agenda, the Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan, RISDP, and the other relevant sector programmes. A related cooperation agreement between Austria and SADC was signed in October 2008.

Amongst others Austria focusses in the area of infrastructure with thematic focus in renewable energy. Affordable access to clean and healthy sustainable energy services for cooking, lighting, heating and cooling as well as other forms of utilisation is major prerequisite for sustainable human development in the SADC Region.

SOLTRAIN is a regional initiative on capacity building and demonstration of solar thermal systems in the SADC region. SOLTRAIN successfully raises awareness and demonstrates what can be done off-grid with solar thermal. SOLTRAIN in its third phase targets the SADC Member States Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe.