ECREEE launches Regional Certification Scheme

The ECOWAS Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (ECREEE) has announced the launch of the Regional Certification Scheme (RCS), an initiative to increase sustainable energy skills to improve quality of solar PV Installations and to accelerate the deployment of solar PV in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) which is an agglomerate of western African countries, comprised of 15 member countries including, among others, Cape Verde and Guinea Bissau.

With the aim to accelerate the deployment of solar energy across the region, this initiative will create a regional certification scheme for installers and develop regional renewable energy standards.

The priority in the first phase will be training installers for off-grid solar and 21 training institutions were already pre-selected from eight ECOWAS countries (Cape Verde, Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal and Sierra Leone) to start collaborating in the pilot phase. In addition, ECREEE has formed a Technical Committee with representatives of the 15 ECOWAS member states to serve as an advisory group to the Regional Certification Body. The Technical Committee will be consulted at key stages of the implementation and further development of the Regional Certification Scheme.

The German development agency (GIZ) will work in cooperation with ECREEE for the creation of renewable energy standards by conducting a survey of the existing national renewable energy product standards, analysing frameworks for their enforcement, selecting products for which regional standards will be developed, and ensuring that the draft regional standards are discussed with all member states.

The scheme is being implemented by ECREEE in cooperation with the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) and with the support from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and the German development agency (GIZ).