In early 2025, EnGreen opened a regional office in Dakar, Senegal, marking a new phase in our presence on the African continent. With EnGreen Africa, we are establishing a long-term, technical, and research-oriented base to support the growing demand for integrated, decentralized energy solutions across West Africa.
We’ve been active in Africa for years, delivering technical assistance in rural electrification, productive uses of energy, and solar-based infrastructure. But building systems without being on the ground limits the potential for consistency, collaboration, and innovation.
Dakar offers the right conditions to establish an operational hub: close to countries where we already work, embedded in an ecosystem of institutions, and increasingly important in regional energy dialogues.
From this base, EnGreen Africa coordinates our work across the continent—ensuring that projects, partnerships, and research activities in Sub-Saharan Africa are anchored in Dakar and developed through local insight and regional connection.
Why Dakar?
Dakar is a logical choice. Senegal is stable, regionally connected, and open to public-private collaboration in energy access. But for us, the city’s real value lies in its ecosystem—the presence of national institutions like ANER (l’Agence Nationale pour les Énergies Renouvelables) –with whom we already collaborate on Green Hydrogen exploration in Senegal-, active technical universities, and a growing network of actors working on the Water-Energy-Food (WEF) nexus, digital innovation, and energy entrepreneurship. Dakar is where government, research, and implementation meet. For EnGreen, that’s exactly the space we want to operate in.
From our Dakar office, we are building partnerships not only in Senegal, but also in Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso, and Niger where we are already implementing rural electrification and training projects.. Our goal is not just to deliver projects, but to support energy transitions that are integrated into local systems—where engineering, training, and innovation are aligned.
What EnGreen Africa Offers
EnGreen Africa is built around three core functions: technical project development and delivery, capacity building, and applied research and innovation.
On the technical side, we offer services across the full life cycle of decentralized energy projects. This includes feasibility studies, load and market assessments, PV and hybrid system design, procurement support, construction supervision, commissioning, and technical monitoring. We’ve delivered these services in a variety of contexts: for example, in Mozambique, where we supported the design and implementation of solar water pumping systems as part of a broader rural electrification program led by ENABEL; or in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where we helped develop a hybrid mini-grid combining solar PV and small hydro to power the island of Idjwi.
These are not abstract case studies—they’re working systems. And we apply the same practical mindset to new projects in West Africa. We’re currently designing project frameworks in Senegal and Mali that combine energy access with agricultural value chains and public service delivery (health posts, schools, municipal lighting). Many of these initiatives also include training components, which is where the second core of our work comes in.
Capacity Building and Talent Development
One of the reasons we’ve established a permanent presence in Dakar is to deepen our role in local training and workforce development around green skills. In every project, we prioritize knowledge transfer and technical ownership. That means working not only with project beneficiaries, but also with vocational schools, engineering students, and early-career professionals.
In Mali, we’ve already run technical training programs for young farmers, focused on the installation and maintenance of solar-powered systems.
Through our Dakar hub, we are building partnerships with national technical institutions and NGOs to deliver targeted upskilling programmes in rural areas. The goal is to ensure that the systems deployed—such as solar PV installations in health posts—can be maintained locally and function reliably over time. At the same time, we are supporting rural actors who rely on clean energy to run agricultural processing equipment, refrigeration units, and other productive or commercial activities. Rather than focusing only on training young engineers in urban centres, we are working to strengthen technical capacity where it is most urgently needed—on the ground, close to the systems and people that depend on them.
Applied Research and Regional Innovation
Where EnGreen Africa stands out is in our ability to connect innovation with real-world application. We are active partners in several EU-funded research programmes—LEAP-RE, PRIMA, and Horizon Europe—focused on decentralized energy systems, agro-PV, sustainable food chains, and the water-energy-food (WEF) nexus.
Our work doesn’t stop at writing proposals or publishing reports. We contribute to the design, testing, and field validation of new solutions—always with the goal of making them usable, replicable, and relevant for the contexts we work in. From piloting solar-powered irrigation systems with farmers to exploring digital tools for energy monitoring, our Dakar hub is where research meets practice.
We’re building strong collaborations with universities, national research centres, and technical institutions across West Africa. And we’re always looking for new ideas, new partners, and new questions to explore together.
If you’re working on similar challenges—whether you’re part of a university, a local NGO, a public agency, or a research lab—we’re all ears.
Projects in the Pipeline
EnGreen is going to support public institutions in designing new frameworks for mini-grid programmes. Based on our past experience in countries like Mozambique and Burundi, we will offer technical advisory to help governments structure tenders that are bankable, inclusive, and focused on long-term service—not just installation.
We’re also preparing new initiatives around agri-PV systems and decentralized energy hubs that support productive uses of energy in rural areas—such as small agro-processing centres and cold storage systems. In the healthcare sector, we’re working on financing models that can make clean energy systems more reliable and more affordable for health posts and rural clinics.
One of the most important initiatives we’re starting is called Solar Doctors. In many rural areas, solar panels that should last 10 or 15 years stop working after only 2 or 3. Not because the technology is wrong, but because no one is trained to maintain them. This leads to two serious problems: first, people stop believing in the value of clean energy because it doesn’t last. Second, a lot of systems are abandoned, and the cost of replacing them is very high.
With the Solar Doctors programme, EnGreen is going to train local technicians—especially in rural areas—so they can keep systems running over time. The goal is simple: clean energy systems that are installed should also be cared for. And that care should come from the communities themselves.
On the research side, we’re building our pipeline of new projects under LEAP-RE and Horizon Europe. EnGreen Africa will act as the local hub for testing ideas, collecting data, and hosting regular technical exchanges between African and European partners. We are also starting new collaborations with universities and research centres in Senegal and other countries in the region, to strengthen knowledge sharing between Europe and Africa.
These are the next steps for EnGreen Africa. They are focused, realistic, and based on what the region actually needs: energy systems that work, people who can manage them, and knowledge that flows both ways.
A Partner for Long-Term Work
We created EnGreen Africa with one clear goal: to be a reliable, competent, and grounded partner for organizations working on sustainability and the energy transition in West Africa.
We work with NGOs that need support in designing and delivering solar-based solutions for healthcare and agriculture. We support development agencies implementing large-scale electrification programs. We partner with universities and research centres to test innovations in the field. And we collaborate with national institutions to build capacity and develop shared tools and methods.
As we look ahead, we are focused on consolidation—not expansion for the sake of it. Our ambition is to build EnGreen Africa into a regional structure capable of serving multiple countries with consistent quality, while staying rooted in local partnerships and practical delivery.
If you are active in this space and looking for a partner who can work across design, implementation, and innovation—we’re open to collaboration.
For more information or to explore partnership opportunities, email Jonathan Ambrogi at j.ambrogi@engreen.world.
