Recent forecasts suggest that African countries must triple their current electricity generation by 2030. Our multicriteria assessment of wind and solar potential for large regions of Africa shows how economically competitive and low-environmentalimpact renewable resources can significantly contribute to meeting this demand. We created the Multicriteria Analysis for Planning Renewable Energy (MapRE) framework to map and characterize solar and wind energy zones in 21 countries in the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) and the Eastern Africa Power Pool (EAPP) and find that potential is several times greater than demand in many countries. Significant fractions of demand can be quickly served with "no-regrets" options-or zones that are low-cost, low-environmental impact, and highly accessible. Because no-regrets options are spatially heterogeneous, international interconnections are necessary to help achieve low-carbon development for the region as a whole, and interconnections that support the best renewable options may differ from those planned for hydropower expansion. Additionally, interconnections and selecting wind sites to match demand reduce the need for SAPP-wide conventional generation capacity by 9.5% in a high-wind scenario, resulting in a 6-20% cost savings, depending on the avoided conventional technology. Strategic selection of low-impact and accessible zones is more cost effective with interconnections compared with solutions without interconnections. Overall results are robust to multiple load growth scenarios. Together, results show that multicriteria site selection and deliberate planning of interconnections may significantly increase the economic and environmental competitiveness of renewable alternatives relative to conventional generation. Africa | energy policy | interconnections | renewable energy | siting A s a region, Africa has the lowest per capita electricity consumption in the world, due in large part to lack of generation and transmission infrastructure development at both the national and regional levels (1). However, the average cost of electricity in most African countries is at least twice that of other developing countries (1). For the region to successfully meet goals to increase affordable electricity access and reduce demand curtailment, electricity generation will need to grow exponentially. By some estimates, demand in the Eastern Africa Power Pool (EAPP) and Southern African Power Pool (SAPP), which encompass more than 50% of the continent's population, may collectively exceed 1,000 TWh by 2030, nearly triple their electricity consumption in 2010 (2, 3).To meet energy goals, decision makers are looking to fossil fuel and hydropower as familiar and undertapped resources (1-3). With the insecurity and high costs of fossil fuels, the planning paradigm has become increasingly hydropower centric (1-3). Yet climate vulnerability (4), international cooperation barriers and transboundary water rights issues, large cost overruns (5), and high socio-environmental impacts (6) plague th...

Material contained in this publication attributed to third parties may be subject to third party copyright and separate terms of use and restrictions, including restrictions in relation to any commercial use. About IRENAThe International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) is an intergovernmental organization that supports countries in their transition to a sustainable energy future, and serves as the principal platform for international cooperation, a center of excellence, and a repository of policy, technology, resource and financial knowledge on renewable energy. IRENA promotes the widespread adoption and sustainable use of all forms of renewable energy, including bioenergy, geothermal, hydropower, ocean, solar and wind energy, in the pursuit of sustainable development, energy access, energy security and low-carbon economic growth and prosperity.

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The Namibian electricity sector has mainly relied on electricity imports from the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) over the last decade. However, a growth in electricity demand and scarce import options could cause energy shortages. Therefore, new power plants ought to be commissioned in the near future to avoid the forecasted energy crisis. In this context, Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) generation is regarded as an appropriate alternative to conventional energy technologies, particularly for the excellent solar regime available in Namibia. The study presents a GIS analysis that identifies suitable areas for CSP establishment. A broad range of geographical parameters such as solar radiation, topography, hydrology or land use are examined. The calculations show that the CSP ceiling generation in Namibia is equivalent to 70% of the worldwide electricity production. Moreover, the study offers a scenario analysis where concrete CSP alternatives are compared to coal-fired plant projects developed by the national power utility. Meteonorm and System Advisor Model (SAM) are used to design CSP alternatives located in the area offering the best combination between high solar irradiation and short distances to the infrastructures. Despite the affordability concern which has to be addressed with sound financial instruments, CSP represents a seminal opportunity for the energy sector in