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Agency celebrates 10thanniversary of Innovation and Technology Centre in Bonn

Bonn, Germany, October 7, 2021 – Today marks the 10th anniversary of the official opening of IRENA’s Innovation and Technology Centre (IITC) in Bonn. 

Since 75 countries founded IRENA in Bonn in 2009, the International Renewable Energy Agency has been at the heart of an unprecedented growth of renewable energy globally. IRENA has come to represent a unique international platform for the exchange of knowledge and policies and to accelerate renewables in the fight against climate change, energy poverty and air pollution whilst promoting socioeconomic development, growth, and job creation. Today, IRENA leads on energy transition and supports more than 180 states across the world in their transition to a sustainable energy future.

Francesco La Camera, IRENA’s Director-General said: “IRENA’s Innovation and Technology Centre has been an asset in driving energy transition – advising countries on energy planning, technology, costs and investment - and on markets and innovation policy frameworks. I congratulate my colleagues for ten years of outstanding pioneering work in the field of global energy transition.”

La Camera added: “IRENA thanks Germany for hosting the Agency’s Innovation and Technology Centre in Bonn. And we look forward to continuing our close cooperation with the City of Bonn which has turned into a truly global hub of sustainability and climate protection.”

Honouring IRENA’s presence in Germany, the Mayor of the city of Bonn, Ms. Katja Dörner, added: “I congratulate the Innovation and Technology Centre for its ten years of presence in Bonn. The deployment of renewables holds the key to a successful energy transition and provides an important contribution to global climate action. Bonn’s IITC has an important role in advancing technology change towards renewables which we urgently need to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement.”

While IRENA is headquartered in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, its presence in Bonn is positively contributing to, as well as benefiting from, the vast network of UN and international entities in the field of climate action and sustainability already based in Bonn. Forming an integral part of the city’s wider sustainability hub provides multiple opportunities to collaborate with European research centres, companies and think tanks as well as connecting with other international organizations like the UN Campus in Bonn and the European Institutions in Brussels.

Within IRENA´s overall mission to promote the widespread and increased adoption of renewable energy, its IITC in Bonn supports this mission by creating a framework for technology and for the work on cost reduction potential and policies to support innovation and the wider use of standards.

The Centre has been at the forefront of outlining how renewable technologies have become the main pillar of global energy transition, tracking the significant cost reduction of renewable technologies and innovation trends year-on-year. IRENA’s Bonn office is also hosting the biennial “Innovation Week” and supports the global discourse through fora like G7, G20 and the Clean Energy Ministerial/Mission Innovation. Finally, IITC brings together public and private sector actors to establish enabling frameworks in the areas of ocean energy, green hydrogen and long-term energy planning to mention a few.

This press release is also available in German (Deutsch).