Guinea Bissau Sustainable Energy Investment Workshop
Christine Eibs Singer is a Senior Advisor to Sustainable Energy for All, focusing on issues related to accelerating energy access. Christine is also a Technical Advisor to the Kenyan Ministry of Energy and Petroleum on the launch of the Off-Grid Solar Fund and a Senior Associate of Catalyst Off-Grid Advisors. She was on the founding leadership team of Power for All, a global campaign to accelerate decentralized renewable energy and was a co-founder of E+Co, a pioneer in energy enterprise development and blended capital investment. Her Board seats include SELCO India and the Dalberg Trust and she is a member of the Investment Committee of the Deutsche Bank Essential Capital Consortium. Ms. Singer spent 10 years at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, concentrating on the development of public-private partnerships. Ms. Singer’s recognitions include the 2007 Woman of Inspiration Award from Fairleigh Dickinson University, the 2011 Keystone Leadership Award for the Environment and an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from New Jersey City University. Ms. Singer is an Ambassador of the C3E Women in Energy Initiative and an Ashden Award International Judge.
Claúdia currently working for ITPEnergised (www.itpenergised.com), has more than 17 years of experience within the consultancy, engineering and research sectors. Working as the International Consulting (IC) Unit Manager and has a Senior Consultant, her main focus is to coordinate day-to-day operations of the Unit as well as to carry out technical work in the areas of policy and strategy development, programming and implementation in the field of energy for developed and developing countries. She has proven international experience in the development and set up of renewable energy and energy efficiency projects, conducting due diligence and analysis of projects’ feasibility and pre-feasibility including analysis of environmental and social aspects of project’s development and implementation. Claudia has also a strong background and track record in conducting environmental and social impact assessments, preliminary assessment of environmental and social aspects, environmental diagnostics and development and implementation of environmental plans.
Claúdia has been very active in the development of projects in West Africa and has participated in the development of a series of projects for and in support of Guinea Bissau, namely: “Review of the Guinea Bissau GEF-UNIDO project implementation and development of 2 Project Concept Notes”, “Establishment of the SEforAll Investment Prospectus for Guinea-Bissau”; “Technical Assistance for the development of the National Renewable Energy Action Plans (NREAPs), National Energy Efficiency Action Plans (NEEAPs), Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL) Action Agendas in the ECOWAS countries”, focusing on the development of the plans for Cabo Verde and Guinea Bissau; “Establishment of an Implementation Framework for Development and Execution of NREAPs and National Renewable Energy Policies (NREPs) in 15 ECOWAS Countries”; and the establishment of the project “Promotion of Renewable Energy Investment in the Electricity Sector and Creation of an Enabling Environment for Replication and Up-Scaling in Guinea-Bissau”.
Eder Semedo is a Program Officer at ECREEE, overseeing implementation of the ECOWAS Renewable Energy Facility (EREF), the Program for Dissemination of Solar Thermal Technology in West Africa (Soltrain West Africa) and is the lead Officer for the implementation of ECREEE’s component on GEF Guinea-Bissau.
He is a strong proponent of a qualified public sector that can oversee RE development in West Africa and ensure investment focus on the double bottom line.
Eder has 6 years experience in project management in Renewable Energy in West Africa, including participation on the ECREEE-GIZ technical assistance facility for utility-scale RE projects and clean cooking.
He holds a Master in Energy and Bioenergy from Universidade Nova de Lisboa, a specialization on Public Management - Energy from the University of California, Davis, is a certified project manager and is currently pursuing a Master in Business and Entrepreneurship in Cabo Verde.
Georgios has a Master in Mechanical Engineering in the National Technical University of Athens and a Master in Energy Strategies in the Ecole des Mines de Paris. He has been developing functions as a mechanical engineer in the strategy and policy projects, renewable energies, energy efficiency and project coordination.
Georgios is the Responsible for the Energy Sector and the Project Coordinator for TESE - Association for development in Guinea Bissau.
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.
Joao Duarte Cunha is Manager of the Energy Initiatives and Partnerships Division at the African Development Bank (AfDB) with oversight on business development, co-financing and country engagement, and leading on new blended finance initiatives such as the Facility for Energy Inclusion (FEI).
Joao was previously the Bank’s Chief Climate Finance Officer and coordinator of its clean energy initatives, including the Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA), Scaling-up Renewable Energy Programme (SREP) and Clean Technology Fund (CTF). His engagement in clean energy financing additionally includes an Advisory Board role in the AfDB-sponsored Africa Renewable Energy Fund (AREF), member of the Africa Regional Committee of the Seed Capital Assistance Facility (SCAF) and member of the Expert Panel of the International Solar Alliance (ISA).
Joao holds an MA in Economics with Environmental Studies from Edinburgh University, and an MSc in Development Economics from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.
João Raimundo Lopes holds a degree in Electrical Engineering by the Faculty of Science and Technology of the University of Coimbra. In 1995, he returned to Guinea Bissau where he integrated the ex-State Secretariat for Energy.
In the Energy sector, João Raimundo Lopes has been the project manager of the Thermal Power plant and EHV and HV Networks reinforcement of the city of Bissau and he was also Vice-President of the EAGB Board of Directors.
In the Environmental sector, João Raimundo Lopes has been the Operational Focal Point of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and has participated in almost every planning exercises, especially in the preparation, execution and evaluation of all the environmental related projects. He is also the Guinea Bissau INDC Coordinator (Intended Nationally Determined Contributions) and in a sub-regional level, he is a member of the West Africa Alliance for Carbon Markets and Climate Finance.
Julio António Raul studied at Kharkov Polytechnic Institute, where he graduated in Electrical Engineering, and got a master’s in Science. Later, he specialised in Renewable Energies, in Germany.
Since then, Julio has been actively participating in many seminars, conferences, forums, trainings and workshops.
Since 1994, when he has been promoted as regional director at Oio region, Julio has been working in the renewable energy sector, with a focus on rural electrification.
Currently, he is the Director of Renewable Energy, Household Energy, Decentralized Rural Electrification and Energy Efficiency at the Ministry of Energy and Industry of Guinea-Bissau.
He is also national coordinator at GEF/UNIDO project and consultant at International Solar Alliance.
Martin Lugmayr, MA and MSc, is a sustainable energy expert for the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), currently coordinating the Global Network of Regional Sustainable Energy Centers Programme in close cooperation with local institutions. For several years Mr. Lugmayr worked as a renewable energy technical expert in Praia, Cape Verde, working with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in the establishment of the ECOWAS Center for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (ECREEE).
Prior to UNIDO, Mr. Lugmayr was in charge of the energy program at the Austrian Development Agency (ADA) and worked on international energy policy issues at the Austrian Ministry for Foreign Affairs and for the Global Forum on Sustainable Energy (GFSE).
Mr. Lugmayr holds an MSc in Renewable Energy Technologies of the Vienna University of Technology and a MA in Political Science of the University of Innsbruck, Austria.
Mr. Michiel van der Want, Director Project Development Suntrough Energy GB is responsible for the development of Suntrough's solar projects in Guinea-Bissau and single point of contact for all stakeholders and any questions related to Suntrough Energy Bissau and the Helius solar project at Gardete. Mr Van der Want has 10+ years of experience in international finance and has worked with banks such as Bank of New York and Goldman Sachs and has years of experience in the development and financing of renewable energy projects worldwide, with a focus on sub-Sahara Africa.
Miquelina Menezes was President of FUNAE, the Energy Fund of Mozambique responsible for off-grid rural electrification projects, between 1998 and end of 2015.
Before working at FUNAE, Miquelina was responsible by the VAT project with IMF at the Finance Ministry.
Most of her professional career was in the energy sector. She served as Deputy Director General of the National Hydrocarbon Company between 1986 and 1998 and before that she worked at the Mining Development Company, at the Mineral Resources Ministry, at the State Secretariat for Coal and Hydrocarbons and at the National Coal Company.
Since 1992 she has been a teacher of management at Eduardo Mondlane University – Faculty of Economy.
She is currently President of ALER – the Lusophone Renewable Energy Association.
Power engineer with 22 years’ experience, Mr DIOP is currently the Project Director of ABREC (African biofuels and renewable energies company) since January 2015. He led the implementation of the PRODERE (Regional Program of Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Development), PROVER (Renewable Energies Valuation Program) and he is monitoring the portfolio of renewable energy projects.
He has a certification in SME management, a Master in Business Engineering. He got know-how in Project Management, Finance and Public-Private-Partnership.
He participated as the private sector representative on the workshops of the reform of the electricity sector in Senegal in 1999/2000.
He managed from 1999 to 2004 as an operator a pilot project of rural electrification by photovoltaic in Senegal.
He also worked on Mali's Scaling Up Renewable Energy Program (SREP).
He was an administrator of the ERA (Energie Rurale Africaine) company which is the operator of the Senegalese rural electrification concession of Kaffrine-Tamba-Kedougou.
