CESET invited speaker at the 7th Mozambique Mining, Oil & Gas and Energy Conference 2021

Our CESET principle investigator - Professor Vanesa Castán Broto - was invited to speak at the virtual MME Conference on “Utilizing Natural Resources as the Catalyst for Economic Development and Diversification”. The 3-day virtual conference took place between 21-23 April.

On 22^nd April, Vanesa participated in session 7 of the main conference entitled ‘infrastructure and technologies - key drivers for sustainable mineral resources development’. Vanesa joined a panel of 3 industry experts to consider infrastructure and technology projects that could optimise mineral resource development, improve supply chains and create a stronger, more integrated industry in Mozambique.

Vanesa’s presentation focused on the role of community energy and the future of sustainable energy. Vanesa outlined the questions that need to be asked to understand the potential of community energy, for example, what is community energy, what are the benefits of community energy and what barriers prevent the development of community energy? People are at the heart of community energy projects as they need to maintain and manage the project and help the distribution of benefits. The benefits of such projects include supporting local economics, addressing the climate change emergency, developing local resilience and delivering social outcomes. Despite the many benefits there are also barriers such as access to finance, institutional barriers and lack of time, energy and experience. Mini-grids – both large and small capacity – have a contribution to the renewable energy sector. However, the landscape for financing is changing, especially in the context of COVID19 and the climate change challenge. International funding and government subsidies are essential to support mini-grid development and growth of the sector. Finally, Vanesa informed the conference of CESET’s recent feedback on The Government of Mozambique’s new draft off-grid regulation, noting that it needs to avoid artificial geographical barriers, tailor bureaucratic hurdles to different types of projects and tax profits, not the development of off-grid systems.

 You can download the presentation slides below.