Renewable energy expertise transferred from one continent to another
Tufwane Mwagomba, from Malawi, became the first former student of the United Nations Geothermal Training Programme to defend his MSc thesis at
Iceland School of Energy (ISE) in December 2015.
Tufwane´s project is called "Preliminary Technical and Economic Feasibility Study of Binary Power Plant for Chiwen Geothermal Field, Malawi" He studied at Reykjavik University through a contract between the UN and RUfrom 2013, which states that RU accepts former Geothermal Training Students for graduate programmes in the field of geothermal energy.
In an interview with Tufwane taken a year ago, he said Malawi is going through an exciting period. "The country lies on the East African tectonic plate area but we have not developed a strategy for the utilization of geothermal energy. We use hydroelectric power plants but they are not very reliable because they get disturbed by floods. The possibilities are definitely there and we will need a lot of expertise to build an industry around renewable energy." He says he will take a great deal of knowledge about the use of geothermal energy from Iceland to his own country.
Two other former Geothermal Training Students are now completing their graduate study at ISE. The United Nations training programme offers a 6-month specialized training in geothermal studies, intended primarily for engineers and scientists from developing countries involved in geothermal projects .
Tufwane with Lúðvík S. Georgsson director of the UN training programme, María Sigríður Guðjónsdóttir, adjunct at RU and Einar Jón Ásbjörnsson, assistant professor at RU and Tufwane´s supervisor.
