Paolo Frankl, head of the renewable division at the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA), has said that strong demand is set to give a huge boost to renewable energy growth in Sub-Sahara Africa over the next five years, driving cumulative capacity up more than 70%.
From Ethiopia to SA, millions of people are getting access to electricity for the first time as the continent turns to solar, wind and hydropower projects to boost generation capacity.
“A big chunk of this growth is hydro because of Ethiopia, but then you have solar … in SA, Nigeria and Namibia, and wind in SA and Ethiopia as well,” said Frankl.
He forecast installed capacity of renewable energy in the Sub-Sahara region almost doubling from around 35GW now to above 60GW given the right conditions.
Ethiopia has an array of hydropower projects under construction, including the $4.1 billion Grand Renaissance Dam along the Nile River that will churn out 6 000MW upon completion.
“Africa has one of the best potential resources of renewables anywhere in the world, but it depends very much on the enabling framework, on the governance and the right rules,” Frankl said at a wind energy conference.
The transition to a low-carbon trajectory to reduce harmful greenhouse gases is creating opposition from the coal industry and fuelling uncertainty in countries where job creation was linked to coal mining.
In Africa, this tension and its impact on new investment have been best illustrated by SA’s state-owned Eskom and its reluctance to sign new deals with independent power producers, according to analysts.
“The continent has a lot of potential, but the problem is financial and political issues, so all of our projects are being delayed for quite a long time, like with Eskom,” said Mason Qin, business development manager for southern and eastern Africa at China’s Goldwind.