The "Village School" project of Offenburg University and Moroccan partner institutions is funded by the DAAD program "Practical Partnerships between Universities and Companies in Germany and Africa". It focuses on the preservation of rural institutions in both Germany and Morocco. Village School concentrates on optimizing the building and energy technology of small schools, with a focus on design, economical energy supply, the use of digital methods, particularly in operational monitoring, as well as locally adapted energy concepts. Also, a practical, transferable teaching concept was developed together to anchor training in sustainable energy technology.
In May 2023, project head Prof. Dr. Jens Pfafferott, researcher Moritz Bühler and coordinator Simone Schede implemented the initiative for the first time at Green Energy Park in Benguerir (Morocco) as part of a one-week summer school on "Buildings and Energy Efficiency". 25 doctoral candidates and students from seven Moroccan partner universities, GEP staff members as well as two students from Offenburg University took part in the summer school.
"I am truly impressed by the openness and commitment of these students to sustainable building concepts, coming from different fields including civil engineering, architecture, mechanical engineering and electrical engineering ," said Jens Pfafferott, summing up his experience. "The summer school has expanded the participants' in-depth technical knowledge with additional expertise in the step-by-step planning and practical design of complex energy systems. This enables these engineers to plan climate-friendly and affordable energy concepts for sustainable village schools." Good and comfortable village schools are, in turn, a core element in rural areas in Morocco, the professor added. Last but not least, they particularly support girls and women in their commitment to fair and environmentally friendly development, as sustainable village schools give them easy access to education.
Professor Pfafferott's lecture was flanked by a workshop on the Python programming language led by Moritz Bühler and individual presentations by Green Energy Park employees. The park's houses, which were built as part of the Solar Decathlon Africa 2019 competition, also served as illustrative objects for the content of the Summer School and, for the first time, as accommodation for all participants.
The shared accommodation and communal meals at the nearby, impressive Université Mohammed VI Polytechnique resulted in intensive personal encounters that will certainly have a long-lasting effect. In addition, a new cooperation agreement between Offenburg and the Institut de Recherche en Energie Solaire et Energies Nouvelles (IRESEN), with which the Green Energy Park is affiliated, was signed during the summer school.