PEA - TCHAD - PROJECT An academia partnership to support the energy transition

Project

Project start date: September 1 2021

Status
Ongoing
Project end date: September 1 2026
Project duration: 5 years
AFD financing amount: 2 900 000 €
Country and region: Chad
Location: Abeche & N’Djamena, Chad
Type of financing: Grant, Academia Partnerships Africa-France (PeA)
Beneficiaries: INSTA – Institut national supérieur des sciences et techniques d’Abéché ;, UJM – Université Jean Monnet Saint-Etienne

Build an international training centre for electrical engineering in Chad – this is the ambition of the PEA-TCHAD project, which was selected for the first edition of the “Academia Partnerships Africa-France” programme. Led by the Institut national supérieur des sciences et techniques d’Abéché and the Université Jean Monnet Saint-Etienne in France, it aims to set up a job-oriented training programme from Bachelor’s/Licence to PhD/Doctorate level.

Context

To alleviate the energy crisis affecting Chad, where only 7 cities have been electrified across the country’s 23 regions, the Chadian State and many operators, including the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), have engaged in constructing solar photovoltaic (PV) facilities to generate and distribute electricity, including in rural areas.
The installation and maintenance of PV mini-grids raise a major challenge for the country’s electrification, but the main obstacle to developing the photovoltaic sector lies in the shortage of qualified personnel, even though large-scale projects are envisaged. In higher education, training programmes on renewable energies in the engineering sciences and physics are almost non-existent.

Description

The PEA-TCHAD project aims to set up a long-term strategic partnership for higher education training in the field of photovoltaic energy at the Institut national supérieur des sciences et techniques d’Abéché (INSTA): a quality, job-oriented Bachelor’s/Licence, Master’s and PhD/Doctorate programme, attractive at both national level and for the Central African region. The ambition of the PEA-Tchad project? Become a training centre for photovoltaic energy in Chad and contribute to the country’s energy transition.

This project was selected for the first edition of the “Academia Partnerships Africa-France” programme (PeA). It is financed by the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs via the Agence française de développement (AFD). The PeA programme is implemented by the Agence nationale de la recherche (ANR – French National Research Agency) and Campus France with support from the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research.

Impacts

This project contributes to achieving the following Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs):

Co-build quality, job-oriented training programmes on the African continent (SDG 4).
Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns (SDG 12).
Combat climate change and its impacts (SDG 13).