Energy in Africa
" AfCFTA main objective is to create a single continental market for goods and services with free movement of people and investments, thus expanding intra-African trade across the continent, enhancing competitiveness and supporting economic transformation in Africa."
Energy is one of the most important infrastructure challenges that need to be tackled by African countries and with AU 2063 Vision along with the AfCFTA objectives, the IEA states that reaching full electricity access by 2030 in Sub-Saharan Africa would require over USD 100 billion per year in investment, a five-fold increase from today’s levels of investment. To meet today's electricity demand in Africa of 700 terawatt-hours (TWh), with the North African economies and South Africa accounting for over 70% of the total even if the other sub-Saharan Africa countries see the fastest growth to 2040, it is a test of compromise, collaboration and cooperation for African countries.
It is worth noting that to achieve the AfCFTA goals, African states must adopt a “developmental regionalism” approach to trade integration. This would include fair trade, building regional value chains, cross-border investment in infrastructure and strengthening democratic governance. Read more about Energy Demand Growth.
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US-Africa Engagement
Congratulations to Mr. Andrew Herscowitz,
Chief Development Officer at the US International Development Finance Corporation.
U.S.-AFRICA ENERGY COOPERATION
The Electrify Africa Act of 2015 (“Electrify Africa”) provides a partnership framework to reduce poverty, drive economic growth, and create jobs through increased energy access in sub-Saharan Africa. Specifically, Electrify Africa calls for an increase of 20,000 megawatts (MW) and 50 million connections by 2020, and emphasizes the importance of increased private sector investment to reach these goals. Read more
USAID DEVELOPMENT PARTNERS
Building on over six years of successful cooperation, the World Bank Group and USAID entered into a MOU in 2019 to catalyze mutual objectives in the energy sector in sub-Saharan Africa. These objectives include an investment of $5 billion U.S. dollars in the energy sector by 2024; adding 3.3 gigawatt-hours of energy storage financed by 2024; supporting 60 million new connections by 2030; adding 5,000 kilometers of transmission line infrastructure constructed or rehabilitated by 2030 and supporting 30,000 megawatts of new energy generation by 2030. Read more
AFRICA'S POWER INDUSTRY- INSIGHTS IN 2020
Most notably, USAID’s Power Africa initiative seeks to enable access to electricity by adding 60 million new connections and 30GW of cleaner, more efficient generation capacity by 2030. Additionally, the World Bank’s Lighting Africa initiative seeks to provide access to 250 million people through off-grid connections by 2030. Much of the new generation capacity will also come from renewable resources, with an estimated 10TW of solar potential, 350GW of hydroelectric potential, 110GW of wind potential, and 15GW of geothermal potential across the continent. Read more
Dams to Electrify Africa
Hydroelectric power is produced as water passes through a dam, and into a river below. The more water that passes through a dam, the more energy is produced. Once a dam is built, an artificial man-made lake is created behind the dam. Electricity is produced by a device called a turbine.
The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) is Ethiopia's most massive project to date and at a cost of US $6.4bn. It is considered to be Africa’s largest dam generating 6000MW of electrical energy. On completion the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam will have up to 170 meters high and 1.8 km long with a total volume of 74,000 million m³.
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Image: Inga Dam ( Democratic Republic of Congo)
Click to See the List of Africa's Dams
AfDB Projects
The aspirational goal of this priority area is to help the continent achieve universal electricity access by 2025 with a strong focus on encouraging clean and renewable energy solutions. This will require providing 160 GW of new capacity, 130 million new on-grid connections, 75 million new off-grid connections and providing 150 million households with access to clean cooking solutions. To achieve these goals it is estimated that the investment needed will range between US $60 billion and US $90 billion per year. The Bank will invest US $12 billion of its own resources in the energy sector over the next five years. Read more
Interesting Articles
12 reasons why gas should be part of Africa's clean energy future
The continent’s energy needs are enormous and urgent. Electricity demand may be plateauing in the US and Western Europe. But in Africa, rising incomes, growing populations and rapid urbanization will combine to push electricity demand to at least double (or possibly triple or more) by 2040. Read more
Innovation: Africa designs Energy Box for off-grid schools
Each Energy Box is shipped to iA’s projects across Africa along with 30 LED light bulbs manufactured in Tzuba, Israel by Bioled Eco Light Systems. The bulbs come in a range of sizes and last up to 10 years, further reducing the need for costly replacement and maintenance. Read more
Rwanda: Founder of electric motorcycle company discusses his journey so far
Rwanda is looking at replacing petrol-powered motorcycle taxis with electric models. Josh Whale is the CEO of Ampersand, a Rwanda-based company which builds electric motorcycles and charging systems for motorcycle taxi drivers. Read more
As World Wavers on Free Trade, Africa Embraces It
The World Bank sees the pact bolstering Africa’s income by $450 billion and lifting 30 million people out of extreme poverty by 2035, if it is accompanied by significant policy reform and measures to facilitate trade. In the near term, lower trade costs could help the continent mitigate output losses of between $37 billion and $79 billion due to the coronavirus outbreak in 2020, according to the Washington-based lender. Read more
[REPORT] Scaling Up Africa's Renewable Power
Greater uptake of renewable energy technologies will then be fundamental in supporting Africa with its ambition to achieve universal electricity access by 2030 and beyond. The IEA forecasts show that renewables will account for approximately 63% of total electricity generation in sub-Saharan Africa by 2040, with non-hydro renewables covering about 37% of total power supply in the Africa Case scenario. Solar PV and wind are expected to be the prominent technologies, counting for above 85% of all new renewable capacity additions: solar PV should reach 124 GW by 2030 and 316 GW by 2040, while about 51 and 94 GW of wind capacity will be added to the African power systems by 2030 and 2040 respectively. Further coordination of power sector development and access strategies is, however, needed to reach scale and overcome the current barriers for Africa’s power sector transformation. Read more
[REPORT] Achieving Clean Energy Access in Sub-Saharan Africa
Several recent studies consider the question of how much investment is needed to achieve universal energy access both globally and in sub-Saharan Africa. For electricity, the IEA’s most recent estimates are US $51 billion per year globally and US $27 billion per year specifically in sub-Saharan Africa (2018-2030) (Table 2).10 For clean cooking, fewer estimates exist but the IEA (2018a) suggests the numbers are much lower, on the order of US $4 billion per year globally, and for SSA US $1.7 billion per year to 2030 (Table 2). Read more
[REPORT] Africa 2030: Roadmap to a Renewable Energy Future
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