Renewable Energy
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AREED, the African
Rural Energy Enterprise Development Initiatives is engaging
the private sector to deliver affordable energy services
based on clean and renewable energy technologies in five
African countries.
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SWERA, the
Solar and Wind Energy Resource Assessment seeks to bring
sustainable energy approaches to developing countries through
increased investment in renewable energy projects. The database
and analytical tools developed through SWERA will help governments
develop realistic energy policies and programmes that are
based on sound knowledge of available renewable Resources.
African countries involved in the SWERA effort include:
Ethiopia, Ghana and Kenya.
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Removal
of barriers to renewable energy technologies in Africa.
The project seeks to identify barriers to implementation
of renewable energy technologies (RETs) in Egypt, Ghana
and Zimbabwe and proposes measures to overcome such barriers.
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Strategy
to accelerate the penetration of RETs in South Africa.
The project contributed to the formulation and implementation
of government renewable energy policy in South Africa, by
developing a strategy to accelerate the market penetration
of suitable technologies, in particular solar, biomass,
wind and mini-hydro.
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IAF, the Renewable
Energy Technology/Energy Efficiency Investment Advisory
Facility helps financial institutions evaluate potential
renewable energy technology or energy efficiency investments
in developing countries and countries with economies in
transition.
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Sustainable
forestry plantation in Tanzania.
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Wind farm in
Ghana
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Experience
with PV systems in Africa. The UNEP Centre has recently
published summaries of selected PV cases from 13 African
countries. Notable are some commonalities and differences
in the implementation approach and its implications on the
success of a project. (PDF,
280 kb)
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Energy Policy
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UNEP has underway efforts helping governments in Sub-Saharan
Africa with power sector reform, energy sector finance,
energy subsidy reform, and climate change policy.
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SEAF, the Sustainable
Energy Advisory Facility is a pilot initiative providing
information and technical support for sustainable energy
activities in selected developing countries, with a focus
on policy changes that support a framework for sustainable
energy approaches.
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Botswana: Strengthening the government-sponsored National
Photovoltaic programme by reorganising its structure to leverage
greater private sector investments in the rural energy services.
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Ghana: Assisting the Ministry of Energy/Public Utilities
Regulatory Commission (PURC) to develop a subsidy reform package
and an energy-service concession structure to secure sustainable
markets for renewable energy service providers.
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Mali: Supporting efforts by the National Directorate
of Energy to build local capacity for development of environmentally
sound energy solutions--such as pourghere oil-fuelled multifunction
platforms.
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Namibia: Design strategic measures to ensure that
government off-grid electrification activities result in a
sustainable electrification development. These measures will
include establishment of a regulatory framework, subsidy policies,
concession policies, and service standards, among others.
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Uganda: Design a plan for developing the national
biomass energy strategy and establish a framework for effective
co-ordination and collaboration among key actors primarily
Departments of Forestry and Energy.
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Energy Subsidy
Reform, Workshops on energy subsidy reform and sustainable
development. (Workshop held in Durban, South Africa,
15-16 December 2000, with an emphasis on the African region
and specific needs of African countries).
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Power
Sector Reform in Sub-Saharan Africa. As part of URC's
programme on power sector restructuring in developing countries,
the reform experiences in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) were
analysed through country studies in Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana,
Kenya, Mauritius, Uganda, and Zimbabwe.
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Mitigation
analysis in South Africa, URC is providing technical
assistance to the project team responsible for the Mitigation
Options Project. This is a component of the South African
Country Study Programme (SACSP) initiated to provide information
for the National Communication.
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Energy
Planning in Burkina Faso. The project is establishing
a national energy database. Completed activities include
mainly: An electrification plan and an electricity planning
model to explore the various development possibilities for
the existing infrastructure, mainly diesel, solar, small
grid, large grid, auto producers and cross-border connection.
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Economics
of GHG Limitations. The main objective of the project
has been to provide a methodology, an implementing framework
and a reporting system which countries can follow in meeting
their reporting obligations under the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The project comprised
national studies in Mauritius, Senegal and regional studies
in the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
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National
Communications Support Programme (NCSP). It is a URC
two-year initiative in collaboration with the UNDP and UNEP
designed to provide additional technical assistance to Non-Annex
I Parties in the preparation of its initial national communications
to the United
Nations Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). (Past
activity)
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Sustainable Development and Climate Change Finance.
URC has undertaken pilot projects jointly with national
teams in Ghana, Uganda, Gambia and Zimbabwe to develop and
assess the institutional capacity required to use the opportunities
offered through the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). The
application of the CDM rules and procedures to specific
projects in developing countries has been examined in a
more detailed manner in another project involving study
of a specific wind-energy farm in Egypt.
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Clean Development
Mechanism in Africa. Since the Kyoto Protocol was endorsed,
URC has been involved in information, awareness raising
and methodoligical development related to the CDM. This
activities are part of UNEP and are funded by the Danish
International Development Assistance (Danida).
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Climate Change and Sustainable Development Implications.
A new methodoligical approach for assessing sustainable
development indicators for potential climate-change-mitigation
projects in developing countries has been developed and
tested in a number of case studies for Botswana, Mauritius
and Zimbabwe.This approach has provided input to the establishment
of a global network of centres of excellence in industrialised
countries and developed countries on sustainable development
and climate change.
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