By Our Reporter
Ugandan innovator, Eileen Lara has been announced as the 2020 Micro-Grid Academy Young Talent of the Year Award winner.
She was announced joint winner alongside Kenya’s Norah Magero and Elly Kevin Oriko.
The award is given out by the RES4Africa Foundation in recognition of their ingenuity and their positive potential impact on their communities.
The award is aimed to showcase and reward youth-driven projects that address the major environmental and social challenges hampering full, sustainable and inclusive development in African countries.
The Talent of the Year Award was open to young African innovators from the Micro-Grid Academy network who launched quality renewable energy projects in their communities.
Eileen Phoebe Lara is a graduate in electrical engineering and currently heads the solar department at Centre for Research in Energy and Energy Conservation (CREEC).
She has not only contributed to the development of standards for solar products in Uganda but is also the founder of Uganda’s Women in Renewable Energy Association (WREAU), a platform to empower women to acquire skills in the renewable energy sector.
Lara points out that 50% of Africa’s population has no access to electricity. This means they must leave their homes to collect fuel for cooking — 90% of which is done by women. Among its many positive ripple effects, access to sustainable electricity will improve family standards of living, health, and women’s incomes.
