Capacity building for Masters’ students sees exciting developments

Work Package 1 (WP1) – aims to build the capacity of Masters’ students to contribute to the achievement of UN’s SDG 7 in their home countries-. To this end, TEA-LP -supports 30 universities from the African, South Asian, and Indo-Pacific regions to deliver innovative and industry-relevant curricula, helping universities to produce highly skilled graduates with the necessary knowledge, expertise, and values needed to make a positive contribution once in industry.

First TEA-LP courses delivered

In the first half of this year, ten partner universities have started or completed delivery of the first TEA-LP course: Local Solutions for Energy Access.

Prof. Misbahu Ladan Mohammed with 16 students who recently completed the TEA-LP energy access course at Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto (UDUS)

NM-AIST Masters’ students visit micro-grid

A vital aspect of the delivery  of the TEA-LP courses is for students to gain first-hand experience of the local energy sector. The Nelson Mandela African Institute of Science and Technology (NM-AIST) students taking part in the Local Solutions for Energy Access TEA-LP course had the opportunity to visit a sugar company micro-grid that generates electricity from sugarcane bagasse, offering students real-life insights into energy production through biomass.

NM-AIST students visiting a micro-grid powered by biomass

EAIF 2024 offered our partner universities the opportunity to match-make with industry professionals, fellow academics, and other key role players in the renewable energy sector. These match-making sessions encouraged productive collaboration, and gave our partners the chance to find opportunities to enrich their universities’ existing curricula, through identifying potential for student internships, funding, bursaries, product demonstrations, and practical work experience.

Demand Assessment in mini-grids course

Our partner, ENACT, delivered a pilot training on demand assessment to Masters’ students at the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT). This was part of the TEA-LP course: Mini-Grids Planning and Design.

JKUAT students role playing community Demand Assessment in the classroom through the use of COMET.


JKUAT students receiving certificates of completion from Dr Scott Kennedy

Market Scoping in appliances course

Our partner, Efficiency for Access, delivered a pilot training on Market Scoping for Off-Grid Appliances to masters’ students at JKUAT. This was part of the TEA-LP Course: Appliances for Off-Grid Communities.- The Efficiency for Access team will roll this training out to all our partner universities, starting with the following three universities later this year:

  • Busitema University
  • Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO)
  • Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto (UDUS)

Mini-grid design software for our university partners

A challenge faced by universities is the need for the latest software for mini-grid design, which tends to be prohibitively expensive. TEA-LP was able to negotiate free academic access to Xendee software as well as COMET software. We have started the roll out of this software to our partner universities delivering the TEA-LP Course: Mini-Grid Design.

In addition, we have negotiated a significant discount for HomerPro software . We will be rolling this out access to this software to the universities at the Mini-Grids Training Workshop later this year (see below).

Upcoming: TEA-LP Mini-Grids Training Workshop (MGTW), 4-11 September

Following the success of the Course Uptake Workshop in 2023, TEA-LP is offering an additional workshop to partner universities delivering the TEA-LP mini-grid course in their masters’ programme.

This will be a 6-day workshop focused on building lecturers’ capacity to deliver the mini-grid course and design a mini-grid using premium software. We are delighted that 35 academics from 18 of our partner unis will be attending the MGTW in Kigali from 4-11 September 2024. The workshop will include guest sessions by Xendee, ENACT and HomerPro as well as an expert from industry (still to be selected).

We gratefully acknowledge that the delivery of this workshop is supported by co-funding from ARE Cornerstone of Rural Electrification (CORE) as well as African Center of Excellence in Future Energies and Electrochemical Systems (ACE FUELS) through the World Bank and the African Development Bank.

We would also like to thank University of Rwanda who will host the workshop on the College of Science and Technology campus.