The Renewable Energy Conference & Expo 2025 (REC2025) brought together the nation’s leading energy actors, innovators, policymakers, and development partners under one roof and the Centre for Research in Energy and Energy Conservation (CREEC) was at the heart of the action.
For over 20 years, CREEC has stood as a pillar of applied research, capacity building, and innovation in Uganda’s renewable energy ecosystem. At this year’s conference, we reaffirmed our commitment to accelerating access to modern energy, fostering sustainable technologies, and strengthening local capacity through collaboration.
Shaping Conversations that Matter
CREEC played an active role across key panel discussions and side events, contributing valuable insights drawn from years of field experience and partnerships across the region.
1. Clean Cooking Standards Session
Our team joined the Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS), Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development (MEMD), and Burn Manufacturing to explore the theme “For How Long Should the Porous Borders Be Blamed?”chaired by Eng. James Baanabe.
CREEC’s Agnes Naluwagga highlighted a critical sector gap, the shortage of skilled technicians to conduct testing and ensure quality assurance for clean cooking technologies.
She emphasized the need to attract and retain youth in the sector through hands-on technical training, while UNBS underscored the importance of local participation in standards development to enhance production quality.
Together, the session called for moving standards from paper to practice, ensuring technologies entering the market meet both global and local performance benchmarks.
2. RA-PURE Session: Linking Energy, Agriculture, and Sustainability
During the session on Regenerative Agriculture and the Productive Use of Renewable Energy (RA-PURE), Dr. Mary Suzan Abbo, CREEC’s Managing Director, shared a profound reflection on what it will take for the RA-PURE movement to succeed.
“We must go beyond good ideas,” she said. “We need functional partnerships rooted in shared interests, accountability, and trust — partnerships that deliver real transformation in the lives of farmers and communities.”
She further emphasized the importance of innovative financing, knowledge sharing, and measurable change that addresses not only systematic but systemic barriers within the energy–agriculture nexus.
This conversation, held under the Power for Food Initiative with partners SNV and the IKEA Foundation, underscored CREEC’s role in driving practical, community-focused solutions across Uganda’s food and energy systems.
Hands-On Impact: Repair and Maintenance in Action
Beyond the discussions, CREEC brought impact to life at the exhibition space, offering free repair and maintenance services for Electric Pressure Cookers (EPCs) as part of the Modern Energy Cooking Services (MECS) project.
Over 25 EPCs were repaired, tested, and returned to users giving appliances a new lease on life and restoring user confidence in e-cooking technologies.
Each repair session included personalized guidance on safe use, energy efficiency, and maintenance, ensuring participants left empowered to get the most out of their appliances.
This initiative demonstrated CREEC’s commitment to practical innovation, skills development, and sustainability, and has since inspired the establishment of a Mobile Repair and Maintenance Desk to serve users across Uganda.
Showcasing Innovation at the CREEC Exhibition Booth
At the CREEC exhibition booth, visitors engaged with our team to learn more about our wide range of services and projects from renewable energy trainings and laboratory testing, to research in productive energy use, electric cooking, and local content development.
Interactive displays, visual stories, and live repair demonstrations gave attendees a closer look at CREEC’s real-world impact and future direction.
The booth also served as a networking hub, connecting partners, students, and innovators interested in the CREEC Academy, our platform dedicated to bridging skills gaps in the renewable energy sector.
Gratitude to Our Partners and Donors
Our participation at REC2025 would not have been possible without the unwavering support of our partners, collaborators, and donors.
We extend heartfelt appreciation to: MECS,SNV and WRI for their support in the execution of the dedicated side events. We also in a special way want to thank all our clients, partners and donors for all the support you give us which enables us to turn research into action, ideas into impact, and innovation into opportunity for communities across Uganda and beyond.
✨ Looking Ahead
Even after REC25 has ended, we remain steadfast in our vision to expand access to modern, reliable, and sustainable energy through capacity building, applied research, and partnerships that create lasting change.
From repairing appliances to reforming systems, our focus remains clear — to drive Uganda’s energy transition from potential to impact.