Overall project: Forecast of revenue to be made from selling wind produced electricity in Lesotho from planned Hirundo Wind Farms to the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) markets.
Overall project: Unlocking Productive Uses of Energy for Women – Empowering Female-Led productive uses of energy (PUE) Businesses and Distribution Networks at 10 locations where OnePower will be erecting mini-grids.
ERC Roles: Design and implementation of energy-agriculture related business models.
Overall project: Most households with access to electricity (grid or mini-grid) still cook with biomass. The project plans to integrate modern energy cooking services (MECS) in electricity access to address both the clean cooking challenge and environmental degradation.
ERC Roles: Pursue modern energy cooking services in Lesotho especially in areas where mini-grids will be erected to help people transition to clean cooking services.
Acquisition of Solar Trailer
Hosted a Solar Open Day at NUL Roma campus with a number of institutions invited to demonstrate renewable energy and energy efficiency products and services. Institutions included the national Department of Energy (DoE), MOSCET, African Clean Energy (ACE), Solar Lights, Bethel Business and Community Development Center (BBCDC) and OnePower.
Initiation of International Collaboration between ERC, Technische Hochschule Ingolstadt and Eduardo Mondlane University on sourcing collaborative research funding on Addressing the Technological and Socio-Economic.
Factors Hindering the Use of Solar PV-Based Mini-Grids in Sub-Saharan Africa with Focus on Lesotho and Mozambique. ERC Role: Addressing the local and national contexts: Legal frameworks, investment conditions and resource availability of PV-based mini-grids in Sub-Saharan Africa.
* To raise awareness for renewable energy technologies (solar thermal, solar PV, etc.) by demonstrating and promoting the benefits.
* To promote the use of renewable energy technologies in the country.
The aim of the workshop is to discuss the current configuration of electricity subsidies in Lesotho and to make recommendations on how best to address this issue for the benefit of the poor and to facilitate clean energy access since the issue of electricity subsidies (grants, etc.) is crucial to the increase of electrification rate, effective electricity usage, affordability and sustainability of electricity supply in Lesotho.
Design and implement: Problem-based Learning; research collaboration and institutional capacity building
Partners: University of Turku and Aalto University
Intensive trainings on participative teaching methods; Student and Staff Mobility
Partners: University of Turku and Aalto University
State of the art sustainable energy training facilities; Provision of high quality experiential and hands-on learning skills; Increased quantity and quality of research projects; Increased international, national and regional partnerships to enhance both local and foreign student & staff mobility; Regional and international accreditation of the currently nationally fully accredited MSc in Sustainable Energy programme.
Capacity building in solar thermal renewable heating and cooling (RHC) technologies & demonstration projects are the core activities.
Partners:
* AEE – Institute for Sustainable Technologies - Applicant
* SACREEE
* South African National Energy Development Institute (SANEDI)
* Centre for Renewable and Sustainable Energy Studies (CRSES)
* Namibian Energy Institute (NEI)
* Bethel Business and Community Development Centre (BBCDC)
* National University of Science and Technology (NUST)
* University of Botswana Clean Energy Research Centre (CERC)
* Solar Industries Association Botswana (SIAB)
Joint development of student projects and implementation of joint research areas in the field of sustainability and energy management in Austria and Lesotho
PROPEL is a collaboration project between the National University of Lesotho (NUL), University
of Turku (UTU) and Aalto University (AU). The main objectives of PROPEL are to enhance
internationalization activities between partner universities and to engage in capacity building at
NUL to develop the quality of futures-resilient sustainable energy education through the
training of trainers approach. The project enhances the skills and competences of HEI staff in
sustainable energy production and consumption by focusing on problem-based learning,
online learning, and blended learning methodologies. The project supports the NUL’s MSc in
Sustainable Energy programme and competences of NUL teaching staff to deliver high quality
learning outcomes to students in both classroom and online environments.
The main objective of DEPLOY is to enhance
Higher Education Institutions’ (staff and students alike) capacities in
Sustainable Energy education. The project will enhance the skills and
competences of students in sustainable energy production and consumption
through the introduction of problem-based learning, online learning, and
blended learning methodologies. The project will support the National
University of Lesotho MSc in Sustainable Energy programme and upgrade competences
of teaching staff in delivering quality learning outcomes to students through
training of teachers in both real and virtual environments. The project also
aims to disseminate and promote the knowledge on sustainable energy to
industry, public sector, and to society. The aim is also to establish sound and
long-lasting collaboration between partner universities, local authorities, and
industry.
Low-Carbon Economy Transformation through
Sustainable Energy Modernization and Access in Lesotho (LETSEMA) is
collaboration project between University of Turku, Finland, Linnaeus
University, Sweden, National University of Lesotho and Bethel Business and
Community Development Centre, Lesotho. The project strives to develop the
capacities of NUL and BBCDC to provide equitable, digital and future-oriented
quality education on sustainable energy that promotes inclusiveness, diversity
and creation of green jobs.
Around 1.8 billion people across the globe have access to electricity but still cook with biomass. Load shedding, weak grids, affordability of electricity, accessibility of liquid petroleum gas (LPG), tradition, perceptions, and a lack of suitable cooking appliances all act as barriers to scaling up the use of electricity or gas for cooking – clean cooking. ERC in collaboration with Loughborough, intend to pilot the use of Electric Pressure Cookers in the villages that ERC is building mini-grids in. For more information on MECS, please click here.
The project aims to pilot Independent Power Producer (IPP) mini-grid technology in Lesotho,
and demonstrate that they can be a superior sustainable solution for rural energy access. The
successful mini-grid model that project partner Gram Oorja has applied in over 60 remote rural
communities in India will be adapted to create an innovative technology and business model
for Lesotho. The model combines a mini-grid with a set of tailored productivity-enhancing
technologies and services (water pumping, grain milling, entrepreneurship, etc.). Two
alternative versions of the innovative model will be tested by installing and monitoring the
performance of two mini-grids, one for compact rural community and the other for a more
widely dispersed community.
The TEA Learning Partnership aims to build the necessary human capital to achieve SDG 7 and increase access to affordable, clean and safe energy for all. The TEA-LP is supporting eight universities across Africa to develop new postgraduate curricula for the energy access sector. Partner universities are provided with both financial and technical support to develop their new courses and degree programmes.
The universities include:
Over and above the curriculum development, TEA has sponsored three students from the ERC, National University of Lesotho.
Master's Students from ERC spend a semester in Austria at Management Centre Innsbruck (MCI) attending a variety of courses related to energy. MCI IS renowned for its focus on entrepreneurship, combining business and science into an exquisitely unique concept. The students apply for admission into MCI and upon acceptance have to apply for a scholarship from Ernst Mach Grant (https://oead.at/en/to-austria/grants-and-scholarships/ernst-mach-grant/). This is a highly competitive scholarship with applicants from all over the world. Nonetheless, ERC is proud to send the second cohort of three of its second year MSc students studying at MCI under this scholarship. Moreover, ERC has welcomed two students from MCI to spend a semester. More information on MCI and what they offer can be found at https://www.mci.edu/en.
