Visit of H.E. Dr. Hassan Younes, Minister of Electricity and Energy to the Regional Centre for RE & EE   10/5/2009
His Excellency the Minister of Electricity and Energy Dr. Hassan Younes visited the Regional Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (RCREEE) on Sunday 10 May, 2009 and held a meeting with the members of Interim Secretariat. Dr. Wolfhard Behrens, 1st Counselor German Embassy in Cairo, Dr. Ahmed Badr, Utilities & Economic Development Specialist European Union in Egypt, Dr. Prof. Adel Khalil, Chairman of Executive Committee of RCREEE, Dr Roland Steurer, Country Director of German Technical Cooperation GTZ in Cairo, Mr. Andreas Holtkotte, Country Director of KFW in Cairo, have attended the meeting. The Minister's speech emphasized on the importance of the establishment of RCREEE for developing renewable energies and energy efficiency in MENA region, through formulating and disseminating a relevant policy, facilitating and supporting technologies transfer and involving and encouraging the participation of the private sector in RE and EE field. The main achievements during the starting period and the work plan scheduled for 2009 and 2010 were presented by Dr. Kilian Baelz, Acting Director of RCREEE with particular emphasis on the status Land Use and the Power Purchase agreements. Eng. Samir Al-Hassan, Technical Director of RCREEE, presented the objectives of the study related to Use of EU Policies to promote RE-based Electricity Generation in MENA countries and explained that the Mediterranean Solar Plan (MSP) requires the completion of the north and south several measures, especially through incentives, financing, policies and technology transfer. Some other topics related to RCREEE activities were presented by Eng. Bothayna Rashed, and Ms Amel Bida (Senior Advisors in RCREEE), like the use of solar thermal energy systems for heating water and the clean development mechanism and the cooling using solar energy. H.E. the Minister expressed the importance of delivering the results of the study of the Land Use and the Power Purchase agreements as soon as possible, as this topic is one the main concerns of the MENA Region. For the standardization of the solar water heating systems, he pointed out that RCREEE should get in contact with League of the Arab States, which is working on the subject to raise the awareness of the stakeholders in incepting a specific standard systems which are useful for the Arab states in MENA region. Regarding the MSP as a future plan, H.E. The Minister seized the active role of RCREEE in its function as a regional project in the implementation of the MSP as a for the benefit of the MENA region. RCREEE shall identify the parties, the responsibilities and tasks which will be presented in a strategic plan in order to enhance the cooperation with regional and international cooperation (League of Arab State, IRENA,..) and to emphasize the importance of Research and Development to transfer technology and strengthen the local manufactures. Furthermore, H.E. The Minister encouraged both the bilateral cooperation between States in the field of renewable energy and energy efficiency, as is the case between Egypt and Germany and the cooperation between the north and south as key stone for the Mediterranean Solar Plan. At the end of meeting H.E. the Minister of Electricity and Energy promised to visit RCREEE each 6 months to support the Center in achieving its objectives.

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