Sustainable Energy for Africa

23-25 October 2017. The Royal Academy for Overseas sciences organized an international conference on "Sustainable Energy for Africa".

The conference highlighted the importance of the issues and challenges the African continent has to cope with in the field of energy. The aim of this conference is to present in an open and updated way the various sustainable energies which are most suitable for African countries' resources and needs, thus contributing to the reduction of fuel poverty and to their economic and social development.

The aim of this three-day conference was to raise public and private awareness of the opportunities and challenges of sustainable energy in Africa by bringing together a number of high-level experts who discussed energy policy topics from a political, socio-economic, scientific and/or technical point of view. The issues were discussed amongst policy makers and academic and/or industrial authorities in front of an international audience. One of the outcomes of
the conference will be the launch of a “Massive Open Online Course” (MOOC) in a scientific or socio-economic field of common EU-African interest.

The conference was divided into five sessions, three of which are dealing with the following topics: 

1. Energy is crucial for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals; 
2.  Energy mix (hydro, solar, nuclear fission and bioenergy): towards robust, equitable and socially acceptable systems; 
3. and Research, innovation and education in support of sustainable energy policies.

Extract of the Programme
Abstracts of the conference 25 October

Wood: an ever-present domestic energy priority for people in emerging Africa

• Jean Noël Marien, Régis Peltier ; Emilien Dubiez ; Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement (CIRAD) UR Forêts et Sociétés – Montpellier France
• Théodore Trefon Musée royal de l'Afrique centrale (MRAC) - Tervuren Belgium 

Prof Hervé Jeanmart,

A locally manufactured gasification technology for the valorization of agricultural wastes in West African countries

• Prof Hervé Jeanmart, Frédéric Bourgois Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium (see presentation at the bottom)
• Séverin Tanoh, Yohan Richardson, Sayon Sidibe, Institut International d'Ingénierie de l’Eau et de l’Environnement, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso;
• Wilfried Ouedraogo ,  Institut de Recherche en Sciences Appliquées et Technologies, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
• François Pinta Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement, Montpellier, France

Posters with a link to agriculture:

• The cogeneration in sugar mill: an energetic deposit opportunity for sustainable development in Sub-Saharan Africa Kana-Donfack P., Kapseu C. and Tcheukam-Toko D., University of Ngaoundere, Cameroon
• EU-Africa Research & Innovation partnership on climate change and sustainable energy – a RINEA technical paper for priorities Guischet A. (1), Sellami M. (2) and Albergel J. (1) (1) IRD, French Research Institute for Sustainable Development, (2) MESRS Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research 
• Building sustainable partnerships in EU-Africa Research and Innovation Initiatives: Experiences from a Finnish University Network Eva Kagiri, Finnish University Partnership for International Development (UniPID), Senior Planning Officer FinCEAL Africa, University of Jyväskylä, Finland