The West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL) is a large-scale research-focused and capacity-building Climate Service Centre designed to help tackle the climate change challenge by enhancing the resilience of human and environmental systems to climate change and increasing variability. Its mission is to provide information and knowledge to its West African member countries from the local to the regional level. This is in response to the impacts of climate change by building up resilient and productive socio-ecological landscapes.
In the scope to become one of Africa’s leading science-based institutions in providing climate services in and for West Africa, WASCAL’s actions are driven by its ambition to combat climate change, improve livelihoods and promote renewable energy and green hydrogen.
Through its Renewable and Green Hydrogen Coordination, WASCAL has stepped up and championed in the development and deployment of renewable energy and green Hydrogen in terms of policies, capacity building, and demonstrative projects implementation as well as technical studies.
Some of the initiatives are the H2Atlas Africa Project, the development of the ECOWAS Green Hydrogen policy and ECOWAS Green Hydrogen Strategy and Action Plan, and the implementation of the International Master Program in Energy and Green Hydrogen. There are also demonstrative, pilot and study projects such as, the Waste-to-energy project in Ghana which is an outstanding pilot hybrid plant for demonstration technologies of energy production from waste and sustainable business model for duplication in West Africa, the PV2H project which aims to optimizing large scale solar plants in the perspective of green hydrogen production in West Africa, the BIO2H project in Burkina Faso which investigates the bioenergy potential for green hydrogen production, the NIGERIA4H study in Nigeria which analyses the potentials, infrastructure, and other enabling framework conditions for green hydrogen-to-fertilizer production in Nigeria, the REPGam Project in the Gambia, which is a pilot project for development of different usage of solar installations for villages, the biogas lab project in Togo which is establishing a high standard lab for biogas characterization and research and is to be recognised as a regional certification lab, and other projects that the WASCAL Renewable Energy and Green Hydrogen Coordination oversees across the West African region.
West Africa is endowed with abundant renewable energy resources, including solar, wind, and hydroelectric power, but it still relies mostly on fossil fuels, which contribute to climate change. To assist West African countries in transitioning their energy sectors, WASCAL initiates studies and projects aimed at creating impactful scientific knowledge. and developing sustainable, green solutions for reliable and affordable energy access for their populations.
To further increase the socioeconomic, environmental and scientific impacts in West Africa, WASCAL Renewable Energy and Green Hydrogen Coordination aims to catalyse innovation in renewable energy and green hydrogen technologies through a competitive platform that brings together academics, researchers, entrepreneurs, and policymakers from across West Africa. Therefore, WASCAL Renewable Energy and Green Hydrogen Coordination elaborated an initiative named WASCAL’s Innovative Ideas Competition for Sustainable Energy, “WISE”. This initiative serves as an opportunity for individuals and groups of people to showcase their projects and research ideas related to renewable energy and green hydrogen, contributing to the advancement of energy access and usage, climate change adaptation, and economic development growth in the region.
Link: https://wascal.org/wise/
