Renewable Postgraduate Symposium (REPS) 2016

The University of Fort Hare hosted the 7^th annual Renewable Energy Postgraduate Symposium on its Alice campus from the 4^th to the 6^th of September 2016, bringing all the relevant stakeholders from different spheres of Government, Industry, Academia, Schools, Community Based Entrepreneurs, and Entrepreneur spin-off companies from the Hub and Spokes Funding Instrument managed by the National Research Foundation and funded by the Department of Science and Technology.

A total of sixteen leading institutions of Higher Learning in South Africa participated in this event, which coincided with the centenary celebrations of the University of Fort Hare. With more than 91 postgraduate student papers presented, REPS 2016 has now set the stage for this initiative to become a fully-fledged national postgraduate conference. View the complete book of abstract here. 17 schools from in and around the Fort Beaufort Education District participated in the associated Learner and Educator programmes on Renewable Energy.

The theme of the symposium for 2016, “Unleashing Sustainable Solutions for a Sustainable Industry” saw an unprecedented uptake by provincial and national role players in both private and public sectors, engaging and debating in a conducive environment where new solutions were proposed. One fact that came through very strongly was that Industry or Government or even the Research and Development fraternity cannot deal with the country’s energy issues in unison or isolation. REPS 2016 promoted a multi-facetted approach with all three stakeholders playing an equally pivotal role towards a renewable and sustainable energy platform cutting across the entire energy value chain, from material characterization at the nano-scale to large energy plants at the megawatt-scale.

written by Prof Edson Meyer, University Fort Hare