[Stoves] Announcement: Promoting Renewable Energy Africa (PREA) Workshop

[Crispin Pemberton-Pigott]

Promoting Renewable Energy Africa

INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP

DATE: 11-13 OCTOBER, 2007

SOCIO-ECONOMIC PRIORITIES
IN RENEWABLE AND SUSTAINABLE
ENERGY INITIATIVES IN THE BUILT
ENVIRONMENT IN SOUTH AFRICA

VENUE:
The Sustainability Institute,
Lynedoch,Stelienbosch

Organised by:
WITS School of Architecture
and Planning.

Convener:
Dr. Daniel K. lrurah
Tel: +2711 7177643
Fax: +2711 7177649
E-mail: danieUrurah at Jwits.ac.za

BACKGROUND AND MOTIVATION
The ongoing electricity shortfall and increasing prices of petroleum
fuels has plunged South Africa into an era of intense
and rapid re-thinking of its energy policy and programmes.
Some of the programme manifestations of this re-think include:

. Peak-oil and urban transformation debate as
spearheaded by ASPO-SA
(Association for the study of Peak Oil-South Africa)

. Public transport and urban densities especially as
demonstrated by the Gautrain Rapid Rail Link (GRRL)
in Gauteng Province and the Rapid Bus Transit
(BRT) system of the city of Johannesburg.

. Green-buildings by-laws and rating systems as
demonstrated by the City of Cape Town.

. Green Building Council of South Africa spearheaded by
SAPOA (South Africa Property Owners Association)

. Life-cycle analysis and embodied energy as
demonstrated by DEAT appraisal of the World Cup
2010 infrastructure projects.

. Renewable energy integration into buildings as
demonstrated by ESKOM's R2- billion solar-waterheating
subsidy-fund

. Bio-fuels programme
Although there are high expectations that such programmes
will translate into major socio-economic benefits especially in
respect to poverty alleviation and job creation, the coupling
principles and mechanisms as well as the related outcomes
have not been clearly articulated in policy or implementation
of the programmes.

WORKSHOP AIMS
AND OBJECTIVES
The programme for the workshop has been structured in a way
which allows both the technical/theoretical and
project/programme dimensions of the subject matter to be
interrogated in a synthetic manner in order to ensure that
learning and understanding is achieved across the two
dimensions.

During Day-1, participant will interrogate the coupling of built environment
renewable and sustainable energy initiatives to the socio-economic
priorities of South Africa
especially in relation to access to cleaner energy services, job creation
and poverty mitigation as well as redressing gender  equity. This will be
based on four key themes as follows:
. Programme fundamentals based on invited presentations.
. Programme potential and scope of replication or expansion, especially
based on stakeholder synergies and capacity to tackle uptake barriers.
. Potential resource and environmental benefits.
. Potential or targeted socio-economic outcomes beyond resource and
environmental benefits.

Day-2, participants will benefit from more focused technical and
project-based presentations with a view towards deepening
application skills in context of specific programme and project
initiatives.

Day-3, participants will visit case-studies which demonstrate some of the
issues covered in the workshop. In the morning session, participants will
visit two housing projects-Lynedoch eco-village in Stellenbosch, Lwandle
Hostel-to-Homes project (with solar water-heating integration). During the
afternoon, participants will visit an additional housing project.