In 2021, five European clusters from Spain, Germany, Italy, and France launched ESECA, a programme financed by the European Commission. ESECA aims at supporting a joint internationalisation strategy of European SMEs from the renewable energy and smart grids sectors towards sub-Saharan African markets.

As part of this programme activities, MEDEE - Motors and Electrical Devices for Energy Efficiency - hosted the first ESECA international networking event in Lille on Thursday 15th and Friday 16th September.

This two-day mission was an opportunity for ESECA members to discover the regional ecosystem of Hauts-de-France, actively supporting partnerships in Africa, and to engage with local innovative stakeholders. The project delegation was composed of the four cluster partners, accompanied by 7 of their companies.

On Thursday 15th, the conference "Energy Access: Supporting innovation between Europe and Africa" gathered more than 120 participants to discuss EU-AU collaborative projects in the energy sector. In the afternoon, a workshop was specifically dedicated to ESECA: after a brief presentation of the market studies of the five target countries (Senegal, Ghana, Rwanda, Tanzania, Kenya) conducted in the first period of the project, 12 companies, including all ESECA delegation, presented their structures and skills to the public.You can find the presentation made this day here : https://www.pole-medee.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/pour-diffusion-22…

Throughout the day, ESECA companies were also able to participate in B2B sessions. In total, around 30 European and local companies requested B2Bs and almost 70 meetings were held during the event!

This conference was also an opportunity to sign a cooperation agreement with AEWEN project, another COSME programme consortium, that focuses on Energy and Water in Africa. Both projects are specifically working on collaborations with senegalese partners. The goal is now to synchronize our actions, especially in Senegal, to maximize our impact!

The next meeting of the project will be organised in Asturias by MetaIndustry4, and is scheduled early 2023. The event will focus on the presentation and definition of the business missions that will be carried in 2023 in the targeted countries with ESECA companies.

Stay tuned!