Canadian support for Jamaica’s energy sector has been strengthened with the signing of a five-year memorandum of understanding (MoU) on March 13, 2017 between Ryerson University’s Centre for Urban Energy (CUE), and Jamaica-based Caribbean Energy Solutions Research Institute (CESRI).
Dr Usha George, vice-president, Research and Innovation for at CUE, and Dr Gary Jackson, principal director of CSERI, signed the agreement on the campus of Ryerson University.
The MOU seeks to facilitate collaboration on applied research, education, and training in the areas of renewable energy, combined heat and power, energy efficiency, smart energy systems, energy modelling (integrated resource planning), energy project deployment, fuels, clean transportation solutions, and technical training related to the energy sector.
Both parties also agreed to accommodate exchanges of MSc, MPhil and PhD candidates from across the Caribbean and Canada in order to unleash and promote a spirit of technological innovation in real-time laboratories. This postgraduate research work will be used to inform energy sector planning in Jamaica and the wider Caribbean.
Ryerson’s CUE is a world-class research and innovation centre dedicated to solving energy challenges. It is an academic-industry partnership that is exploring and developing sustainable solutions to urban energy challenges, such as the advancement of smart grid technologies, transmission and distribution, micro grids, energy policy, demand management, energy conservation, climate change, energy storage and renewables.
CESRI, meanwhile, is a research institution (operating under emPCC) which conducts research and provides technical assistance to support energy sector planning within Jamaica and across the Caribbean. Its main aim is conducting joint research, providing education on and facilitating training programmes in energy.
This is the second such arrangement signed CESRI has signed with a Canadian research institution, following the October 2016 MOU with British Columbia Institute of Technology.
The High Commission of Canada in Jamaica, in association with Global Affairs Canada, provided logistical support for this technical cooperation initiative from its Science, Technology and Innovation Programme, which seeks to profile and support Canadian research and development partnerships in sustainable development and smart technologies.
