The ”enerMENA R&D Infrastructure Workshop” was organised in Almería, Spain on December 15th and 16th, 2011 to launch the work in the new enerMENA working package:
Support the establishment of MENA R&D and test infrastructure. Objective of this Workshop was to identify the necessity of development such an Infrastructure in the CSP field at the enerMENA Partner institutions.
Concentrated Solar Power is a promising renewable energy technology for the EU-MENA Region due to the high performance as well as economic and environmental advantages. Aiming at cost reduction and optimization of CSP plants and components, the German Aerospace Center identified the necessity of R&D Infrastructure from the early beginning and developed several facilities at the Plataforma Solar in Almería, Spain, the DLR Cologne and Jülich, Germany. In the framework of the enerMENA Project the Institute of Solar Research at the German Aerospace Center will use its accumulated know-how and experience to support its partners to identify their individual needs for the test facilities and prepare together with tem implementation plans to realize an adequate infrastructure.
Guests from Jordan, Egypt, Algeria and Tunisia have presented the solar energy plans and R&D activities of their countries at the beginning of the workshop. Thereafter, DLR scientists introduced the DLR test facilities including a demonstration tour to the Plataforma Solar in Almería. Besides reaching consensus to conduct joint R&D activities, the workshop was concluded by the decision to prepare a country report for each partner that includes national and institutional plans to construct R&D infrastructure. It was finally agreed to organise the following workshop in Amman, Jordan after three months.