Solar energy education and deployment in Lesotho contributes directly to climate change mitigation by avoiding CO2 emissions and strengthens adaptability to climate change through promoting job creation, capacity development, economic activity and social services via electrification. Through this education nad training based programme, a solar technology curriculum withh be developed from which scores of students will benefit.

The direct beneficiaries of this project will be the partners who will be trained on this solar technology and the students/subsequent employees who will be educated on these topics in the future. As such, we reached out to all partner organizations early in the planning process, convening a meeting in January 2012 to discuss potential architectures for this project proposal and which among them would optimally fit in with other activities taking place at NUL and at ATS. Partners at both NUL and ATS have also provided comments to improve the text of this full project proposal. As the project evolves, we envision active participation by all parties in every stage of this program. This will include all-participant meetings at the beginning and end of the project and, at minimum, once midway through implementation for progress review. Through training sessions (Objectives 1+2), partners will receive all knowledge and skills necessary to actively participate in the design, creation, and installation of the solar CSP educational facility at NUL – drawing them actively in to the project implementation. Project monitoring and evaluation will primarily focus on objectively measuring successful knowledge transfer (e.g., examinations) as well as recording of numbers describing student participation in subsequent years. In this secondary case, partners at NUL will likely take a lead in the monitoring and evaluation component of the project.

The intervention is in line with the national priority of increasing economic productivity and growth and reducing pollution across all sectors using green technology and environmental management systems

The project shares knowledge, promotes learning and guides action towards climate change mitigation through deployment of innovative and renewable micro-CSP power generation. The capacity development inherent in our approach is an important contributor towards sustainability of project results as the learning is disseminated through existing educational (NUL) and vocational (ATS attachment) channels. The development of up to date curriculum inclusive of CSP strategies and a practical demonstration can have a sustained impact on the attainments of Basotho students for years to come, as well as enhance the national capacity to pursue future solar CSP project development in Lesotho. An ongoing flow of benefits from this project will include the infrastructure upgrades to ATS and NUL facilities for rapid prototyping, and the monitoring equipment for measuring important data products such as Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI, the beam component of sunlight responsible for driving CSP power generation systems) for the purposes of establishing a baseline assessment for Lesotho. Through the outcomes of this project the organizational capacity of STG Lesotho will be enhanced and leveraged to provide continued expertise and support to micro-CSP development efforts, specifically targeting provision of affordable, clean energy to rural health and education institutions. All of these outcomes are synergistic with the potential to continue beyond the duration of the SGP project, so that in 5 years time the use of micro-CSP in distributed power generation can become widespread in Lesotho, with the ultimate aim of generating real improvements in people’s lives and in the choices and opportunities available in un-electrified areas.

The proposed intervention seeks to support the solar energy ecosystem within Lesotho by conducting a program based on education, training, and technology transfer of a cutting edge micro-scale concentrated solar power (CSP) cogeneration technology developed at MIT (USA) and validated in Lesotho by STG International in conjunction with Government of Lesotho’s Appropriate Technology Services (ATS) and the Bethel BCDC through an award by the World Bank (Development Marketplace 2006). This approach uses solar thermal collectors and heat engines capable of simultaneously providing both electricity and hot water to rural institutions such as health clinics and schools. The project will build competency in CSP technology through a focus on education and training for scientists, engineers and technicians working at ATS and the National University of Lesotho; programs put in place will thus continue to educate future generations of trainees and students as this knowledge capacity is held within the institutions. In addition, other interested parties may apply to participate up to the capacity of the courses (15-20 individuals).