ASAER and the Promotion of Renewable Energy in Angola
António Fernandes Rodrigues Belsa da Costa, 58 years old, of Angolan nationality, is a Mechanical Engineer by profession, in the specialty of Thermoenergy. Degree from the University of Camagüey, province of CAMAGÜEY, Republic of CUBA. Has a professional experience of 29 years, having held various positions, such as Deputy Director for Thermal Production of Luanda, Director of Exploration of Luanda, in the National Electricity Company, in which he directed several projects for the rehabilitation and assembly of Turbines in Thermal Power Plants; He was Chairman of the Board of Directors and General Director of the Public Water Company (EPAL-E.P.); Served as the National Director of Electrical Energy of the Ministry of Energy and Waters of Angola, having directed projects for the Installation of Aroderivative Turbines; Coordinated the Management Commission for the former National Electricity Company; He was also Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Public Power Production Company, PRODEL-E.P. and, by default, assumes the presidency of the Association of African Electricity Companies (ASEA), based in the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire. Since October 2017, he has been Secretary of State for Energy in the Government of the Republic of Angola.
Jessica Hand is the current UK Ambassador to the Republic of Angola and the Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe. Before that, Mrs Hand led UK policies on conventional arms control issues, including arms export control regimes and licences in the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO - the British Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Development).
He has experience in political, military and multilateral matters, in promoting trade and investment, and in boosting gender equality issues. She served as Director of the Department of International Trade in Turkey and was Consul General in Istanbul; Director of Operations and Consul General in Moscow; Political Adviser to the Commander of the Joint Headquarters of NATO North; Deputy Head of the Department of Non-governmentProliferation of the FCDO in London; Ambassador of the United Kingdom to the Republic of Belarus; and Head of the Sanctions Unit (then part of the United Nations Department) in the FCDO in London.
Adriano was born in Niterói, Federative Republic of Brazil, studied at the Fluminense Federal University in his hometown where he graduated in electrical engineering in 1986.
After two years in the Military Engineering Corps, he left the Navy to join Halliburton in 1988 and then joined Schlumberger Oilfield Services in late 1989.
At Schlumberger Oilfield Services, he worked on several projects in Norway, Denmark, France, Scotland, England, Russia, Nigeria, Angola, Venezuela, USA, Vietnam, Middle East, Argentina and Brazil. He has also held various positions, from field engineer at the front end of service provision to management roles in multicultural and diverse geographical locations.
Adriano had the opportunity to work in leadership positions in all Schlumberger business lines, with two detachments in Support Functions: one as director of global technical quality of the WCP Group (Testing, Completion and Artificial Surveying) and another as M&A leader and Director of Integration for the acquisition of Smith International and Geoservices.
After 23 years at Schlumberger, Adriano joined GE Oil & Gas in June 2013 as Director of GE Oil & Gas in Brazil, headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, leading GE’s Oil and Gas Operations and covering all GE’s business with Petrobras, Oil & Gas and P & Ls not related to oil and gas. In May 2017, he joined BP as President of Exploration and Production of Brazil.
He is currently the Senior Vice President of the BP Group for Angola, based in Luanda.
He was part of the Board of Directors of ABESPETRO (Brazilian Association of Oil Services Companies) and AMCHAM-RJ (American Chamber of Commerce of Rio de Janeiro)
Her passions outside of professional life are: Sail Racing; Cruise, Diving, Hiking, Trekking, Cycling and Golf. As a recreational activity, he tends to spend time as an amateur carpenter and motorcycle mechanic.
João Moreira Pinto Saraiva was born on 8 February 1957 in Malanje, Angola.
Graduated in Electrotechnics - Control and Command, from the Technological University of Dresden, Germany, in 1988 and had several jobs such as:
- Regional Director Centro da ENE (Empresa Nacional de Electricidade) during 1990/92.
- Director General of ENE in 1992.
- Secretary of State for Energy and Water 1992/1997.
- Minister of Energy and Water 1997/1999.
- Adviser to the Minister 1999/2015
- PCA of the company RNT (National Electricity Transmission Network) 2015/2017.
- Advisor to the Minister of Energy and Water since 2017
He started his career at GREENTECH in 2016, having evolved in the various aspects of project management and business development. In 2018, he assumed the operational leadership of the implementation of the solar home systems project, having coordinated with the BBOXX team the choice of site, the implementation strategy and the operational supervision. He has assumed the role of key interlocutor with local communities and administrative and local authorities. During this period he helped to coordinate the area of preparation of proposals and was one of the implementation managers in the project of implementing solar solutions in the Medicine Depots in Luanda, Luena and Menongue. He is currently responsible for the interconnection of the various operational components at the level of the 80ha site for the installation of a 30MW solar plant in the city of Lubango and the element designated by Greentech to ensure at this stage all contacts with authorities and local entities in the city of Lubango.
With basic and preparatory studies in Angola Graduated in Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the Unversidade de Newcastle, UK. At Anglobal S.A for about 3 years, he has been part of the department of alternative energies and control and management systems Comap, has been developing and monitoring several projects from which stand out:
•Implementation of the 699 kW Solar Park at Luanda International School.
•Implementation of the solar park on the roof of the parking lot at Anglobal Shipyard 1 in Viana.
•Design and installation of Solar Pump System in the Farm 27- Waku Cungo and in the Mangais.
•Development of hybrid systems with automatic transfer and synchronization with the public and soft network.
Alda Manuel is an Electrical and Electronics Engineer, a graduate of the University of Newcastle, where she was selected by contest to make the final speech at the graduation ceremony on behalf of the students of the Faculty of Engineering.
Their interests are within the quality of education, gender equality and clean energy / affordable. Alda is the Coordinator of Ecoangola’s Renewable Energy Campaign, where she is responsible for planning campaign strategies, organizing activities and setting goals. It oversees the elaboration of educational materials related to sustainability and renewable resources. As a volunteer, Alda is the Ambassador of the NEF (Einstein Next Forum) to Angola, where she is responsible for organizing and leading the Science Week for Africa. ASW is an initiative of the NEF, promoting annually in more than 30 African countries simultaneously to stimulate curiosity to learn and create interests in the STEM area.
She is passionate about education and is currently developing a platform called Tchossi Academic to improve access to teaching materials, providing an open academic repository to the public and directional studies with Angolan experts. The platform also aims to promote scientific research in universities and bridge the gap between knowledge exchange through educational forums and technical webinars. As a result, she was recently recognized as a Young Peace Ambassador to Angola by the YSP representing the International Association of Youth and Students for Peace, in which she pledged to promote peace, enabling young students to become virtuous citizens and supporting the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
Isabel Cancela de Abreu is an Environmental Engineer with an Executive Master on Sustainable Energy Systems.
Her experience in renewable energies started at APREN, the Portuguese Renewable Energy Association, where she was Director of the Technical Department.
Isabel was afterwards invited to work as Policy Adviser at EREC, the European Renewable Energy Council.
Later on, she decided to take advantage of her national and international experience to found ALER, the Lusophone Renewable Energy Association, where she now works as Executive Director.
In addition, Isabel was also a social volunteer in Niassa - Mozambique, and did an internship at Grameen Shakti in Bangladesh to learn about their microcredit and Solar Home Systems programs.
José is currently based in Maputo as Coordinator of the GET.Invest Mozambique Country Window. Its tasks include implementing private sector mobilisation activities and developing a pipeline of projects, such as managing the implementation of GET.Vest services in the country. Over the past 15 years, its field of work has included policy and regulatory reforms and funding to facilitate public and private investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. .