The International Solar Alliance, under its stellar capacity-building initiative (an in-country capacity-building facility), the Solar Technology Application Resource Centre (STAR-C), inaugurated a Solar Academy at the Ecole Polytechnique de Thiès (EPT) in Senegal. The centre, funded by the French Republic, was inaugurated by HE Dr El Hadji Abdourahmane DIOUF, Minister of Higher Education, Research, and Innovation, Senegal, in the presence of officials from the Senegalese Ministries of Education and Energy, International Solar Alliance and diplomats from the French Mission in Senegal. The Solar Academy will provide citizens of Senegal with long-term certified courses on solar energy. The National Agency for Renewable Energies (ANER) of Senegal will act as the focal for the Academy.
ISA’s STAR-Centre initiative aims to build the required human capacity and skills within Member Countries to undertake energy transition independently while boosting economic growth and job creation. STAR-Centres are hubs for upskilling, testing, standardisation, and creating new enterprises that can ultimately contribute to a country meeting its global climate commitments.
Speaking at the inauguration ceremony, HE Dr El Hadji Abdourahmane DIOUF, Minister of Higher Education, Research, and Innovation, Senegal, highlighted three positive outcomes from the launch of this initiative. The first key takeaway is that Senegal is addressing the issue of solar energy—energy derived from the sun, an inexhaustible resource, crucial for a developing country, especially given that Senegal is one of the sunniest countries in the world. The second is the strong cooperation between the Ministry of Higher Education and the Ministry of Petroleum, Energy, and Mines. The third takeaway is the essential partnership between Senegal and international institutions and agencies. In this project, the government of Senegal, through its ministries, works alongside organisations like the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), International Solar Alliance and the French Embassy, which also contributes to this initiative’s success.
Sharing his greetings on the inauguration, Dr Ajay Mathur, Director General, ISA, said, “These centres will be crucial in the coming years. The world needs the necessary human and institutional capacity more than ever to support the growth and sustainability of the solar energy sector. The good news is that more and more countries are expressing interest, and therefore, the potential to form a regional and global network of STAR Centres is growing. In 2024, ISA launched seven STAR Centres in Ethiopia, Somalia, Bangladesh, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Cuba and Kiribati equipped with state-of-the-art technology.” He further added, underlining the role of collaboration, “Transformative processes demand enhanced international cooperation across stakeholder sets and sectors. ISA is actively engaging with international governments and philanthropic organisations to amplify the impact of its programmes and initiatives with the required technical and financial support.”
ISA has steered the setting up of STAR-Centres across its regions in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Asia Pacific. The STAR-Centre in Senegal has been completed under the aegis of an ongoing project with the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs of France in three pilot countries, namely, Bhutan, Senegal, and Papua New Guinea. In collaboration with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), ISA is developing and harmonising solar product and service qualifications and standards. The partnership has developed training curricula and delivered successful workshops training stakeholders on the qualification framework. The project will soon deliver regional quality infrastructure frameworks for solar photovoltaic energy in the East African Community (EAC) and the Pacific region, as well as regional quality infrastructure frameworks for solar thermal energy in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the EAC region. Senegal has been chosen as a pilot country to initiate long-term courses, hence the ‘Solar Academy’ nomenclature. The first short training session for solar PV technicians is ongoing and has 27 participants; the next training session in the pipeline will focus on solar thermal energy.
About STAR-Centre Initiative
The STAR Centre in ISA Member Countries functions in the following ways:
- A Centre of Excellence for capacity building, testing, standardisation, and incubation. This hub is a dedicated resource centre, delivering expertise to the government, private sector, communities, and individuals and enabling decision-makers to prioritise mainstreaming solar energy in the energy mix.
- Incentivise innovation and capable enterprises, standardised products & services.
- Strengthen local capacity, thus helping to de-risk investments and making countries investment-ready.
- Promote green jobs by developing a pool of resources in countries lacking uptake of solar energy and raising the professional standard of those engaged in solar power in Member Countries.
- Drive investment by engaging financial institutions on the economic viability of solar projects, identify and mitigate risks, and leverage large-scale and low-cost finance for solar energy deployment.
ISA is at present working with 15 countries, namely, Venezuela, Benin, Guyana, Zimbabwe, Chad, Belize, Niger, Djibouti, Fiji, Tanzania, Sri Lanka, Senegal, Papua New Guinea, Madagascar and Sudan to set up STAR Centres in the coming. All operational STAR Centres have all necessary equipment, instruments, and pedagogy for multi-stakeholder training. It uses a pedagogy of 30-course modules on different aspects of solar energy to raise professional standards and allow businesses to employ a certified pool of technicians and engineers. It also builds the capacity of government officers to integrate solar energy in development schemes and programmes and financial institutions to make informed decisions on project financing.
About the International Solar Alliance
The International Solar Alliance is a global initiative launched in 2015 by India and France at the COP21 in Paris, with 120 Member and Signatory countries. It works with governments to improve energy access and security worldwide and promote solar power as a sustainable transition to a carbon-neutral future. ISA’s mission is to unlock US$1 trillion of investments in solar by 2030 while reducing the cost of the technology and its financing. It promotes the use of solar energy in the agriculture, health, transport, and power generation sectors. ISA Member Countries are driving change by enacting policies and regulations, sharing best practices, agreeing on common standards, and mobilising investments. Through this work, ISA has identified, designed and tested new business models for solar projects; supported governments to make their energy legislation and policies solar-friendly through Ease of Doing Solar analytics and advisory; pooled demand for solar technology from different countries; and drove down costs; improved access to finance by reducing the risks and making the sector more attractive to private investment; increased access to solar training, data and insights for solar engineers and energy policymakers.
With advocacy for solar-powered solutions, ISA aims to transform lives, bring clean, reliable, and affordable energy to communities worldwide, fuel sustainable growth, and improve quality of life. With the signing and ratification of the ISA Framework Agreement by 15 countries on 6 December 2017, ISA became the first international intergovernmental organisation to be headquartered in India. ISA is partnering with multilateral development banks (MDBs), development financial institutions (DFIs), private and public sector organisations, civil society, and other international institutions to deploy cost-effective and transformational solutions through solar energy, especially in the least Developed Countries (LDCs) and the Small Island Developing States (SIDS).
