Visit of H.E. Dr. Hassan Younes, Minister of Electricity and Energy to the Regional Centre of RE & EE

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 for Economic
Cooperation in the German Embassy in Cairo, Dr. Ahmed
Badr, Utilities & Economic Development Specialist at the
Delegation of the European Commission to 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, also attended the meeting.

The Minister's speech emphasized the importance of the
establishment of RCREEE for developing renewable energies
and energy efficiency in the MENA region, through
formulating and disseminating relevant policies,
facilitating and supporting technology 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
activities towards formulating regional best practices for
land us and power purchase agreements

Eng. Samir Al-Hassan, Technical Director of RCREEE,
presented the objectives of the study related to the Use
of EU Policies to promote RE-based Electricity Generation
in MENA countries and the Mediterranean Solar Plan (MSP).

Some other topics related to RCREEE activities were
presented by Eng. Bothayna Rashed, and Ms Amel Bida
(Senior Experts in RCREEE), like the use of solar thermal
energy systems for heating water and the clean development
mechanism and the solar cooling.

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 others) 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.