Energy Partnership Programme between Ethiopia and Denmark: Workshop Report

This report is the deliverable as required by the Terms of Reference (ToR) for the assignment regarding UNIVERSITY KNOWLEDGE SHARING COLLABORATION WORKSHOP held at the Liesak Resort in Bishoftu (near Addis Ababa) on the 3rd-5th of December 2024 under the Enhanced Denmark Ethiopia Energy Partnership (DEEP) programme.

The DEEP programme is a Government-to-Government Cooperation that aims to provide technical assistance from Danish governmental institutions to Ethiopia’s Ministry of Water and Energy (MoWE), Ethiopian Electric Power (EEP), and Ethiopian Electric Utility (EEU). The engagement with the Danish Energy Agency (DEA) has a university component that aims to facilitate collaboration between Ethiopian and Danish universities to further enhance knowledge sharing and capacity building.

The assignment defined by the ToR is under the Framework Agreement between the DEA and the DTU Consortium for Position 3 of the Global Cooperation coordinated by the DEA regarding Onshore- and Offshore Wind Development.

For this assignment the team from the Danish Universities consists of
• Niels-Erik Clausen and Jens Carsten Hansen, DTU Wind,
• Marie Münster, DTU Management (not attending the workshop), and
• Poul Alberg Østergaard, Aalborg University (AAU), Department of Sustainability and Planning (as sub-consultant to DTU Wind).

The Ethiopian universities that are partners in this cooperation are Addis Ababa Institute of Technology (AAiT), Adama Science and Technology University (ASTU) and Mekelle University (EiT-M) and institutional partners Ethiopian Electric Power (EEP) and Ministry of water and energy (MoWE).

The overall objectives are
• to assist Ethiopian universities to develop their courses and study programmes in the fields of wind energy development and energy planning
• to gain a more in-depth understanding of the specific skills needed in the power sector and how these needs align with what Danish universities can offer
• to provide Ethiopian universities with recommendations that will improve their ability to educate students in the relevant topics.

The workshop should in collaboration with the three Ethiopian universities, EEP and MoWE and the Danish Energy Agency primarily
• Provide best practise from Danish universities in course development, in particular related to the fields of 1) energy planning and 2) wind energy development.
• Discuss the process for developing the scope of the topic.
• Identify priority areas for future work: Recommend future collaboration over the duration of the DEEP programme. This should include a list of activities with reflections on why these activities should be prioritized with regard to the overall objectives of the collaboration. The recommendations should include a tentative timeframe and an overview of the expected resources and inputs that will be required from the Danish universities

The workshop was planned and expectations aligned through three online preparatory meetings in October and November 2024.

This report presents based on presentations and discussions at the workshop in brief a) lessons learned and recommendations of the Danish universities for designing courses on wind energy development and energy planning as well as b) recommendation on how to strengthen collaboration between the Danish and Ethiopian universities and the energy sector with the perspective of candidates facilitating the Ethiopian energy transition.