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Renewable energy viable energy source in Africa
In light of the current electricity supply crisis in Africa, the biggest opportunity for the continent to reform its energy sector is to build new generation capacity from renewable-energy sources, asserts nonprofit organisation Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP) regional manager Amanda Luxande.
She adds that this could be funded through climate financing and other international financial instruments and arrangements committed to combating climate change
The Africa Energy Indaba enables industry leaders and representatives to discuss and seek solutions to the issues and challenges facing the energy sector.
“This gathering is important, as it will bring together participants from developed and developing countries, representatives of governments and industry, and multilateral and bilateral organisations to discuss how to address crucial issues currently plaguing the energy sector.
“This includes unlocking the barriers to the deployment of renewable -energy systems, energy efficiency and ways to eradicate energy poverty, while also identifying ways and means to overcome those barriers,” says Luxande.
The REEEP has identified one of the biggest challenges in the African energy sector as being low access to electrification, despite the fact that the continent holds immense potential to produce alternative energy.
The organisation aims to catalyse the market for renewable energy and energy efficiency, and sees the Africa Energy Indaba as an opportunity to discuss, debate and seek solu- tions to deal with Africa’s low electrification status.
“Only about one-fifth of the sub-Saharan population has access to electricity, compared with about one-half in South Asia and more than four-fifths in Latin America,” says Luxande.
She notes that there is a diminishing surplus of generation capacity in the region. Generating new capacity or extending the grid to 60% to 80% of the sub-Saharan African population without access to modern energy services is a key issue that African governments are grappling with.
“Finding the necessary solutions can prove to be difficult.
“The way forward for energy sector reform is fraught with difficulties and is complex, owing to both technical and political challenges that hinder accelerated progress,” she states.
She elaborates that the challenges include difficulties with cross-border power trading and related mechanisms, tariff viability, investor sentiment, the quest for self-sufficiency by individual countries and capacity constraint issues.
Luxande notes that, even though it looks as though some of the challenges cannot be overcome, she believes that, by following certain guiding principles, tailor-made interventions can be undertaken. The first of these is an assessment of the technical assistance needed to achieve a reduction in energy poverty. This would require a look at relevant lessons learnt from previous projects and how these initiatives could be replicated or adapted for quick and concrete results. Further, the role that governments, international financial institutions, regional banks and national development funds currently play in funding access and the role these entities should play in supporting sustainable energy poverty solutions need to be defined, says Luxande. Luxande notes that there are various ways to ensure that funding is available, and that governments and financial institutions are fully committed and involved in ensuring that the energy sector receives the attention it needs to resolve the challenges it faces. “Determining the ‘how to’ of making energy projects attractive to investors and energy affordable to final consumers, facilitating public–private partnerships in clean energy development, driven by efforts to mainstream green, independent power producers into national grids, and supporting small and medium-sized clean energy service companies to provide energy services in rural areas are part of the solutions,” says Luxande. Finding a way around these challenges could result in Africa becoming one of the most lucrative investment markets in terms of renewable energy and what it can do for Africa and the world.
“Recent trends show that Asian equity and debt markets, with their significant share of the global market, are near saturation and no longer offer substantial returns. Sub-Saharan Africa could be poised to provide the best global risk-return profile for renewable-energy markets,” says Luxande.
She asserts that the private sector has a pivotal role to play in promoting low-carbon energy sources in emerging markets, provided that governments set the appropriate fiscal, legislative and regulatory environment conducive to investment in clean energy development.
“Under these probable conditions, clean energy development is likely to grow and to be recognised as a critical and significant contributor to the economies of African countries,” she notes.
Source: engineeringnews.co.za
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