The United Nations Environment Programme and the Frankfurt School-UNEP Collaborating Centre for Climate & Sustainable Energy Finance organized four Lessons Learnt Workshops in Ghana, South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya. These workshops reflected on the successful implementation of Clean Captive Installations for Industrial Clients in Sub-Sahara Africa (CICSA) demonstrated through pilot projects in the 4 countries.

Purpose of the Lessons Learnt Workshops

  1. Disseminate project results and knowledge as well as raise awareness among attendees, ensuring the project sustainability and country ownership. The experience and track record accumulated by the pilot projects will be spread at the national level, bringing clarity and visibility to the industrial sector, reducing risks perceived by industrialists as well as financiers, while the market for captive installations matures and expands despite a lack of long-term financial support.
  2. Collect relevant, feedback, guidance and recommendations from local stakeholders on the project lessons learnt. The lessons learnt provide a holistic overview of the results achieved by the project, which has funded 6 pilot projects to demonstrate the effectiveness of captive renewable energy solutions for commercial and industrial clients. The four lessons learnt are now available here.

Lessons Learnt Workshops

The four Lessons Learnt Workshops took place as per the schedule shown below:

  • The Lessons Learnt Workshop in Kenya took place on 20 April 2023 at the Park Inn Hotel in Nairobi, Kenya.
  • The Lessons Learnt Workshop in Ghana took place on 9 May 2023 at Holiday Inn in Accra, Ghana.
  • The Lessons Learnt Workshop in Nigeria took place on 11 May 2023 at the Nigerian Energy Commission in Abuja, Nigeria.
  • The Lessons Learnt Workshop in South Africa took place on 26 June 2023 at the Maslow Times Square Hotel in Pretoria, South Africa.

Highlights of the Lessons Learnt Workshops

The architecture of the workshops composed of five (4) main sessions that included: (i) Welcome and opening remarks, (ii) Presentations on the overall CICSA project; Presentation on lessons learnt from the local pilot project partners in the partner country, (iii) Plenary sessions on lessons learnt from the implementation of the Project in the partner country and relevant matters, and (iv) next steps.

Altogether, the 4 lessons learnt workshops brought together more than 200 participants from partner countries and beyond, with representations from government institutions, industries, technology providers, private companies, manufacturers, financial institutions, and academia.

Outcome of the Lessons Learnt Workshops

  • The CICSA project was highly successful in providing crucial grant support for innovative and scalable captive generation business models that serve the commercial and industrial (C&I) sector and demonstrating the economic and financial viability of such solutions, thereby achieving the project objectives.
  • To efficiently support the sector and respond to the markets’ demand, CICSA should continue operating and should focus on the following components: (i) country ownership by the local respective authoritative entities; (ii) results-based grant facility; (iii) private sector mobilization; (iv) consultation and dissemination.