Italian Interuniversity Centre of Research on Sustainable Development (CIRPS) has strengthen a partnership with ACE-ESD on a joint technical assistance for the development of 2 photovoltaic-hybrid mini-grids in Rwanda.
The initiative, promoted by the private company Absolute Energy Rwanda, is located in the Eastern Province, in Gatsibo District, and will see the installation of 2 hybrid renewable generation plants, accounting for more than 400 photovoltaic panels, supported by a large carbon-lead storage system, in order to supply clean and reliable power for productive use to 1.200 rural households. The projects look forward to be in place and operational by October 2018.
Italian Universities of Pisa and Rome “Sapienza”, along with the ACE-ESD, will play a critical role in the project, being in charge of carrying out the load assessment, conducting a deep data collection campaign aimed at identifying different categories of power customers. Data coming from the energy meters throughout the mini-grids lifetime will feed a forecasting model for off-grid system sizing optimization.
A students’ exchange program began between such Universities in March 2018, when University of Rome involved the University of Rwanda ACE-ESD in the capacity building platforms Micro-Grid Academy and Field Study Abroad, where both parties students participated in lectures and hands-on training in Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya case studies.
A wider partnership has been launched where research activities will be directly undertaken by Italian and Rwandan PhD students with strong background in Renewable Energies and Decentralised Power Generation.
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