Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST)’s Namibia Energy Institute (NEI), conducted a three-day training course to equip artisans and students with various skills to boost their knowledge of Pumped Solar Thermal Systems.

Honourable Kornelia Shilunga, Deputy Minister: Mines and Energy (third from right, front row); Dr Samuel John, Dean: Faculty of Engineering – NUST, (second from right, front row); Werner Weiss, Managing Director: AEE-INTEC (fourth from right, front row), pictured with NUST staff and participants of the workshop.

The main focus of the training was exploring the commercialisation of solar water heaters, as part of implementing the Solar Thermal Roadmap and Implementation Plan for Namibia.
The plan aims to provide a practical, independent and objective analysis of pathways to achieve a low-carbon economy in Namibia, in line with the universal energy goals.

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The workshop was conducted under the SOLTRAIN Project, in collaboration with the African Development Bank (AfDB). SOLTRAIN is a regional initiative project that was launched in 2009 with a focus on capacity building and demonstration of solar thermal systems in the SADC region.

It is funded by the Austrian Development Agency (ADA) and the Opec Fund for International Development (OFID) and recently, it entered its fourth phase, which runs until 2022.
The Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Mines and Energy, Honourable Kornelia Shilunga, officially opened the training course.

In her welcoming remarks, she said: “We are grateful that another phase of the SOLTRAIN project was approved and that it includes the support of the implementation of the Solar Thermal Roadmap and Implementation Plan.”
The Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, Dr Samuel John, reiterated the University’s commitment to the project, highlighting its relevance in supporting the country’s energy goals.

More than 40 participants from solar thermal companies, institutions of higher learning, regional electricity distributors, municipalities, amongst others, attended the course that was facilitated by Dr Werner Weiss, Managing Director: AEE-Institute for Sustainable Technologies (INTEC), an Austrian Research Institute.

Another training course is scheduled to take place in the near future which will focus on the process of conducting energy audits for companies, amongst others.