With the participation of over 35 representatives from Universities, Research Centers and governmental organizations from six MENA countries and Germany, the enerMENA Launching Workshop was organised in the framework of the enerMENA Project as a follow-up for the Orientation Workshop, held in Cologne in May 2010. The Launching Workshop represented a major milestone for the implementation of teaching materials for university lectures in the field of Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) Technologies in the MENA Region.
Representatives from Cairo University, Jordan University, Ecole Nationale d’Tunis, German University in Cairo, Université Mohamed Premier in Oujda (Morocco), Ecole Nationale de l'Industrie Minerale (Morocco), Jordan University of Science and Technology, Al-Baath University (Syria), CRTEn Centre des Recherches et Technologies de l'Energie (Tunisia), L’Unité de Développement des Equipements Solaires (Algeria) as well as Aachen University of Applied Sciences, University of Kassel and University of Ilmenau took part in the enerMENA workshop along with several DLR scientists.
The Workshop provided an ideal venue to present, discuss, and finalise the, first of its kind, CSP advanced teaching materials which have been prepared during the last year by enerMENA team. This joint effort took us a step further towards the implementation of expert
knowledge of CSP technologies at MENA Universities in order to qualify man power that is required for the sustainable implementation of CSP technology in their countries. Building the local technical capacities in the partner countries will support the plans to realise large scale solar energy projects in the MENA region in accordance to Desertec Concept and the Mediterranean Solar Plan (MSP). Moreover, the qualified capacities will have good employment chances in a rapidly growing solar energy market in their countries, which will have significant impacts on their societies.
Implementation of the teaching materials is planned after finalising the teaching materials. In this regard, first implementation workshops will be organised in autumn of this year at partner MENA universities, which have relevant postgraduate programs.
The enerMENA Team expresses their sincere appreciation to all participants for their contributions and fruitful collaboration as well as to the German Federal Foreign Office for its financial support.