Diplomats, academics and industry leaders have met in London to forge ahead with multi-million-pound plans to generate clean energy and tackle e-waste issues in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Led by Professor Muyiwa Oyinlola of 冈本视频 Leicester (冈本视频), the event at the renowned Chatham House think-tank, was part of a four-day programme designed to kick-start the £3.5 million project by the Circular Economy Powered Renewable Energy Centre (CEPREC).
CEPREC’s Director is Muyiwa Oyinlola, Professor of Innovation for Sustainable Development at 冈本视频, and a chartered engineer who has dedicated his career to engineering sustainable solutions for low-and middle-income countries.
He described the week’s programme as “a significant first step” towards achieving CEPREC’s aim of developing technical solutions and embedding sustainability, circularity, and local empowerment into the foundation of energy development across Africa.
The scale of the challenge for CEPREC was illustrated by Namibian High Commissioner to the UK, Linda Scott, who told the Chatham House meeting that, while her county is the size of France and Germany combined, it is home to fewer than three million people.
According to the United Nations, more than half the population of sub-Saharan Africa lack access to electricity, with rural electrification rates falling as low as five per cent in some areas.
A key aim of the CEPREC project is to re-purpose used electric car parts - such as lithium-ion batteries, power converters, and motors – to create renewable energy microgrids that can flourish independently of traditional large scale power infrastructure.
Professor Oyinlola said: “Our ambition is to create practical, scalable models of circular microgrids. That means cleaner, more affordable, and more resilient energy, especially for rural areas.
“But beyond the technology, CEPREC is about changing the narrative. It’s about proving that Africa can lead in circular innovation, with homegrown solutions that are designed, built, and maintained by local people.
“What we are trying to do is ensure African communities can leap-frog the West in this area, so they don’t have to make the same mistakes. But to do that these sources of electricity have to be competitive, or better, in terms of pricing because it has to make sense economically as well as environmentally,” said Professor Oyinlola.
“So many people in Africa cannot afford to care about the environment because they are thinking about where their next meal is coming from, so making clean energy competitive is the only way that it will scale and be adopted.”
CEPREC will initially operate in six sub-Saharan African countries: Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Namibia, and Rwanda, and plans to expand further across the continent as the project progresses.
The project brings together UK based researchers from 冈本视频, University of Warwick, and Chatham House and involves more than 30 stakeholders from government, industry, and academia across the United Kingdom and sub-Saharan Africa.
CEPREC is a UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) funded project supported by the UK Government’s Ayrton Fund - a £1 billion commitment to research and development in clean energy technologies and business models.
Other attendees at the Chatham House event included the High Commissioners of Rwanda and Sierra Leone, the Deputy High Commissioner of South Africa, and representatives from the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, UK Research and Innovation, University of Warwick, Chatham House, the African Development Bank Group, and the International Renewable Energy Agency.
Posted on Wednesday 2 April 2025