Africa–Europe cooperation in the energy transition should not be about one-way transfer. It should be about learning in both directions. This is one of the key messages shared by Prof. Smail Zouggar, Full Professor of Electrical Engineering at Mohamed Premier University (UMP), Oujda, Morocco, in the latest edition of ESEIA Sustainable Energy Insight, which explores lessons emerging from the EMERGE project and the role of genuine two-way cooperation between Africa and Europe.  

The interview was published by ESEIA – European Sustainable Energy Innovation Alliance,  EMERGE project partner coordinating the project’s dissemination and communication activities.

African pilot sites as learning environments

Drawing on the EMERGE project experience, Prof. Zouggar argues that African pilot sites should not be seen simply as places where European tools and methodologies are applied. Instead, they are learning environments where partners encounter different energy realities, policy barriers, infrastructure constraints and opportunities for innovation. These experiences can help adapt modelling approaches and generate knowledge that is also relevant to European energy systems.  

Morocco provides a particularly relevant example. Its electricity system combines a rapidly growing share of variable renewable energy with significant financing and investment constraints, creating a strong need for flexible, decentralised and digital solutions.  

The experience can offer broader lessons in areas such as:

• resilient energy storage;
• demand management;
• decentralised energy systems;
• microgrids and local grids;
• cost-effective innovation;
• adaptation of modelling tools to local realities.

Within EMERGE, cooperation between African and European partners is built around the co-design of energy models that respond to technical, economic, environmental and social conditions in the pilot regions.

Prof. Zouggar highlights that European expertise in areas such as modelling, grid planning and digitalisation can contribute to the development of African energy systems. At the same time, African experience in decentralised solutions, cost-effective resilience, climate adaptation and local grid management can contribute to Europe’s own energy transition.

The objective is therefore not simply to transfer technologies or methodologies from one region to another, but to create a shared space for learning, experimentation and innovation.

The interview also looks beyond the lifetime of EMERGE and at how the knowledge and tools generated by the project can continue to support energy planning. According to Prof. Zouggar, the long-term impact of tools such as the EMERGE open-source toolbox will depend on continuous capacity building, sustainable institutional ownership and accessibility for the policymakers, utilities, planners and other professionals expected to use them.

Read the full ESEIA Sustainable Energy Insight interview with Prof. Smail Zouggar, available in English and French: https://eseia.eu/news/eseia-sustainable-energy-insight-in-focus-building-resilient-energy-systems-through-eu-africa-cooperation/