Under the patronage of His Royal Highness, Prince Hamzah bin Al Hussein, the 6th Global Conference on Renewable Energy Efficiency for Desert Regions (GCREEDER 2018) kicked-off Tuesday 3rd of April 2018 at the University of Jordan. Local and international energy experts and academics participated in the conference to present applications and technologies of renewable energy for desert regions.
The opening ceremony featured remarks from Dr. Saleh Al-Kharabsheh, Jordan’s Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources; Prof. Azmi Mahafzah, UoJ President; and Prof. Abeer Al-Bawab, General Director of the Scientific Research Support Fund (SRSF). Also at the ceremony, HRH Prince Hamzah presented the honor trophies to the conference sponsors and guests of honor, including Dr. Ala’aldeen Al-Halhouli, DESIRE project coordinator. During the three-day conference, a DESIRE booth was set to disseminate the project’s objectives and achievements. A touring exhibition took place by Prince Hamzah bin Al Hussein, he passed by DESIRE booth and was interested to know more about the project, where the DESIRE team from German Jordanian University provided him with an overview.
The conference has also enabled expanding the DESIRE network. The DESIRE project partners from Syria, Germany, Cyprus and Italy have joined the event and have presented the achievements of the projects and its impact in their countries. DESIRE team from German Jordanian University with the help of DESIRE partners provided an overview about DESIRE to the visitors and the interested entities, companies and stakeholders. They also helped in keeping everyone updated about DESIRE activities and newsletters by the network register form. On the second day, DESIRE held a session to present the scientific papers that were done by the students of the University of Jordan who enrolled in one of DESIRE modules. Six scientific papers were presented on different topics related to the Socio-Economic Impact of renewable energy and energy efficiency. They included statistical information about the renewable energy projects in Jordan. Two of the interesting topics that presented by the students were “Assessment Study of the Environmental and Socio-Economic Impact on Tafila Wind Energy Project”, and “Socioeconomic Impact of Renewable Energy on Rural Community in Jordan - Shams Ma'an”.
Dr. Gabriella Calderari provided a workshop about the DESIRE E-Learning platform for DESIRE team, in which she explained the main points of the E-Learning Platform, such as: the home page content, how to create a new account and how to enroll the students, in addition to the courses and how to edit them. Multiple EU Funded Projects Workshop was held in the second day afternoon. In which dissemination and implementation lectures were provided by each project coordinator. Eng. Nouf Al-Heyari from German Jordanian University on behalf or Dr. Ala’aldeen Al-Halhouli, presented an introduction about DESIRE to the attendees, its goals and the socio- economic impact on society such as creating jobs, increasing the international export and reducing fuel import, illustrating the importance of renewable energy in achieving growth and sustainability.
