In September 2014, Strathmore University through Strathmore Energy Research Centre received the Partnership for Enhanced Engagement in Research (PEER) award to develop and implement a solar PV outreach training module for capacity building in East Africa. The project was funded by the United States Aid for International Development (USAID) through the National Science Foundation (NSF).
Strathmore Energy Research Centre (SERC) under the PEER project built institutional capacity of local vocational and technical training institutions (TTIs) by integrating solar PV installation courses in their training programs. Twenty-five Technical Training Institutes in Kenya benefitted from the outreach program; their teaching staff were trained and they received equipment for subsequent training.
One thousand and twenty solar PV technicians (including 60 women) were trained as a direct result of the PEER project. After the training, the TTIs were provided with two training kits: an Arizona Mobile Training Toolkit (MTT), and a Strathmore mobile training kit. The Arizona MTT is designed by Arizona University, and it constitutes of PV modules, a battery, a charge controller, an inverter, a circuit breaker and the operational manual.
The Strathmore mobile training kit was designed and patented by Strathmore Energy Research Centre (SERC) for the PEER project. It has similar components with the Arizona MTT, except that its components are locally available.
The project was funded by the United States Aid for International Development (USAID) through the National Science Foundation (NSF).
