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Regional Steering Committee
Regional Collaboration Action Plan
The Action Plan for Regional Sustainable Energy Development was developed and finalized during
the course of the workshop with a high level of commitment from the participants. The presentation slides
of the regional action plan are summarized here as follows:
The partner institutions and universities have adopted the following mission statement: Enhance
collaboration among universities and other stakeholders to promote energy efficiency and appropriate
renewable energy technologies for environmental sustainability and economic development.
The institutional arrangement to carry out the mission involved the selection of a lead
university to serve as a focal point in each country to coordinate activities among national universities
and institutions. Figure 1 shows a schematic of the institutional set-up. A Steering Committee having
one representative from each country was formed and shall be chaired on a rotational basis. It will
coordinate activities with international institutions and national focal points. AUB will chair the
steering committee initially. So far the institutions involved are:
The Steering Committee will also have a member representing the technical US advisors:
Florida Solar Energy Center, University of Central Florida
Northwest Energy Education Institute (NEEI), Eugene, Oregon
PRD Consulting, Pleasanton, California
The agreed-upon Steering Committee members on April 30, 2004 for the first year are:
Nesreen Ghaddar (American University of Beirut - Lebanon)
Fayez Abdallah (Jordan University of Science and Technology - Jordan)
Imad Khatib (Palestinian Polytechnic University - Palestine)
Ali Hamzeh (Damascus University - Syria)
Sayed-Ahmed Said (King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals - Saudi Arabia)
Roger Ebbage (Northwest Energy Education Institute - USA)
The proposed initiatives by the partner institutions and
universities are:
- Development of a regional database for energy efficiency and renewable energy sources.
The expected activities include collecting, refining, and publishing a database related
to the energy aspects for solar and weather data, with an expected duration of 3 years.
- Institutional strengthening and capacity building to become an important national/regional
resource to support energy planning at the decision-maker level. It is expected that the
participating universities will aim to establish low-cost testing facilities at the
universities for educational and research purposes. The units will promote capacity
building for human resources. This will promote the importance of certification of
energy products. Universities should be an active participant in establishing the
regulations of the certification standards. The assembly will work on generating a robust
energy audit kit that is affordable for use by various engineering offices.
- Technology Transfer / Enhancement / Adaptation for issues related to regional
energy / water / environment issues. In this initiatives, universities will define
“appropriate” technology needs based on regional profiles, and will prioritize affordable
“ready-to-install” renewable energy technology that can be sought to reduce conventional
energy consumption . This initiative aims to accelerate application of appropriate
renewable technologies (RETs) and improve public awareness of RET potential and its
positive impact.
Figure 1: The Institutional Plan
The immediate steps that have to be taken by the group are agreed upon as follows:
- Strengthening of a regional collaboration among universities (establishing of a formal body)
- Defining major issues related to renewable energy and energy efficiency that affect sustainable
development in the region
- Defining and prioritizing the research and development agenda for the universities
- Soliciting sources for start-up funding. It is suggested that the current grant remaining
funds could be used as seed money for the next activity
These steps have been set with deadlines to meet the objectives. The starting point was to
form the Steering Committee for Regional Collaboration on Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Technology,
as stated above. The priority areas are identified as: i) Database; ii) Renewable Energy Data; iii) Energy
Efficiency; iv) Renewable Technologies. The deadlines set for the action items are given the table below.
Action items for the Regional Collaboration Plan
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Action |
Date of Completion |
| Develop a website |
August 2004 |
| Develop bylaws |
September 2004 |
| Identify activities within each area |
September 2004 |
| Form teams in different areas |
September 2004 |
| Ask for proposals for the identified activities |
January 2005 |
| Identify Funding Agencies |
January 2005 |
| Submit proposals |
Mandated by Agencies Deadlines |
Conclusions and Recommendations
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