Participation to Open Africa Power 2020 - Thierry Odou & Safiatou Nana

From 14-14 February 2020, we (Thierry Odou and Safiatou Nana – PhD candidate at the  WASCAL DRP¹¹ Doctoral Research Program  Climate Change and Energy) had the opportunity to participate to the Open Africa Power edition 2020.

 The African Module was hosted at the Power Futures Lab at the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business with the collaboration of Strathmore University (Kenya). We were among the 61 African clean energy leaders from 16 different countries that were selected for the third cohort out of 752 applicants, in which 38 PhDs (63%) and 26 women  (43%).

Open Africa Power is a unique education venture on the continent initiated by the Enel Foundation in partnership with leading academics in Italy and Africa, which intends to forge a new generation of Clean Energy leaders for Africa. The program is consisting of Online Module and Exams (Regulation for Universal Access to Energy), two residential modules in South Africa and Italy and lastly a Give Back Module in Africa

For the first residential module in South Africa that we partook, Enel foundation during this week brought together renowned practitioners and scientists dealing on ground with Power sector issue in Africa.  The topics discussed range from general understanding of energy sector challenges and possible solutions to address various barriers on technological, social, economic and environmental aspects.  The menu concocted includes as well leadership in Clean energy, Project finance and business development. We were also exposed to the state of art of technologies ongoing in the world and future pathway of the sector including digitalization, augmented reality and remote maintenance. Apart from the class interaction, we had outdoor activities such as: a dinner at the residence of the Italian Ambassador, visit to the Philippi innovation centre where we have group activities on community energy problem solving,  jogging, hiking on the Lion's head and finally tourist visit at the Table Mountain (one of leading attraction site in Africa).

It was a great learning journey and networking among young Africans Energy experts and renowned experts in our field. Environmentally friendly technology as part of WASCAL goal occupied a central part of the debate. https://twitter.com/EnelFoundation , https://www.enelfoundation.org/