19-07-2017
Following the ninth meeting of the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Experts Committee of the League of Arab states, which recommended the acceleration of implementing The Solar Heating Arab Mark and Certification Initiative (SHAMCI) at the national level in Egypt, Tunisia, Jordan and Lebanon; and building on the success of SHAMCI regional workshop for Egypt and Jordan last May, a regional workshop on Developing Executive Work Plans for SHAMCI in Lebanon and Tunisia” took place on 19 & 20 July in Beirut, Lebanon.
The workshop was a successful collaboration among the Regional Center for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (RCREEE), League of Arab States (LAS), Lebanese Center for Energy Conservation (LCEC), and Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB). In addition to SHAMCI secretariat, representatives of certification bodies, testing facilities, energy agencies and a number of private sector representatives from Lebanon, Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria, attended the workshop, as well as financiers, observers and experts in the field from regional and international organizations.
The workshop attendees discussed the updates of SHAMCI project and the current situation in Lebanon and Tunisia on the first day. Moreover, a session was devoted for each country to develop a clear and specific work plan with the concerned institutions, depending on their readiness and reported progress. On the second day, Algerian and Moroccan contributions gave an up-close overview of the current capacities and challenges necessary to implement SHAMCI in these countries. Furthermore, discussions regarding expanding the current PTB support program called
Strengthening quality infrastructure for solar thermal energy in the Maghreb to other countries in the region through bilateral or regional collaboration took place. Finally, the attendees had an informative field visit to the solar water heaters testing laboratories of the Industrial Research Institute (IRI) in Lebanon.
The overall goal of the workshop was to ensure the availability of all necessary tools and conditions of the involved bodies to implement SHAMCI certification in the participating countries, with special focus on Lebanon and Tunisia. In addition, the work plans developed for Lebanon and Tunisia aim at paving the road to award the first SHAMCI label in the Arab region before the end of 2017
