The demonstrator included fixed solar photovoltaic panels on a test building (16KWp), flexible soldier portable solar photovoltaic panels as well as monitoring and metering equipment for water and electricity. Over the six-month test period, the renewable energy systems were not only successfully integrated into the existing camp power architecture (requiring only minimal reconfigurations of the network) but it also led to substantial energy management improvements and cost savings.
Even though it was decided to keep the demonstrator at the camp after the test deployment and let it continue its services and renewable energy supplies to EUTM Mali, it was never the ambition of EDA to remain the owner and remote technical maintenance manager of the system in the long run. Hence the agreement reached early this year with the EU’s Military Planning and Conduct Capability (MPCC), as the commander of EUTM Mali, to take over the full ownership rights of the demonstrator on behalf of ATHENA, the mechanism - since then replaced by the European Peace Facility (EPF) - which handled the financing of common costs relating to EU military operations under the EU's common security and defence policy.
This transfer arrangement, signed on 15 January 2021 by EDA Chief Executive Jiří Šedivý and Vice Admiral Hervé Bléjean of the MPCC), allows for the demonstrator to continue its services to EUTM Mali in the future under the best technical conditions.