Off-Grid Europe part of business delegation to deepen energy access cooperation in Senegal
Christiane Kragh accompanies Federal President Steinmeier on his official visit to Senegal
15 February 2022 – Christiane Kragh, founder and CEO of Off-Grid Europe GmbH will take part in the official visit of German Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier to the Republic of Senegal from 20 to 23 February 2022 as part of the business delegation.
The small medium-sized company Off-Grid Europe GmbH specialises in renewable energy systems and storage technologies (so-called mini-grids), and is part of the ASER300 project in Senegal, which aims to electrify at least 300 villages. The project was commissioned by the Senegalese agency for rural electrification, is managed by GAUFF Engineering from Nuremberg and is financed by the German development bank KfW. In the course of implementing the project, Off-Grid Europe founded their subsidiary Off-Grid Africa in Senegal.
Establish Off-Grid Africa in the West African market
Christiane Kragh: “It is great what we have achieved over the past two years through the ASER300 project in Senegal. Our systems give about 150,000 people access to electricity for the first time. Now it’s about establishing ourselves in the West African market in the long term. With Off-Grid Africa we have a great Senegalese team on site that takes care of the installation and maintenance of our systems. We want to build on this – preferably with other rural electrification projects, but also increasingly with industrial customers who depend on a stable grid. For example, medium-sized local companies or hospitals.”
Mark Kragh, also founder and CTO of the company: “We offer a complex and comprehensive technical solution that gives our customers access to cheap and clean electricity. We work across the full range of services from planning and system design to system installation and maintenance. Innovation and constant optimisation of the systems are very important to us in order to guarantee the longest lifetime possible.”
While Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier will also meet representatives of civil society in Senegal and, among other things, visit a girls’ school, Christiane Kragh will have the opportunity to exchange views with various business representatives at a round table.
“As an international company, we rely on knowledge transfer and cooperation”
Christiane Kragh: “It is a great honor for me that our company was chosen to accompany the Federal President’s trip. I hope for many good discussions and opportunities for cooperation. At the same time, I would like to use the trip to draw attention to the shortage of skilled workers in the solar industry, which is particularly affecting us in Germany. As an international company, we rely on knowledge transfer and cooperation and therefore hope for a better exchange of specialists. Storage technologies are crucial for the energy transition, and we are only too happy to play our part.
With regard to our subsidiary Off-Grid Africa, it is also important to us that multilateral cooperation within the framework of the United Nations Agenda 2030 is further strengthened. Reliable partners abroad are of course very important for our growing company. In this sense, I am very much looking forward to exciting encounters during the upcoming trip.”