Can wind and solar fuel Africa's future?

Gies, Erica

doi:10.1038/539020a

Cited by 14 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…Regarding energy in SADC, "challenges include low tariffs, poor project preparation, issues with power purchase agreements, and absent regulatory frameworks that stunt investment and financing in the energy sector" (Schreiner and Baleta, 2015). A great opportunity results from Southern Africa being endowed with significant potential in terms of solar and wind power generation (Gies, 2016). However, although recognized as opportunities in most of the region's NDCs, the prevalence of coal-fired stations which are not yet at the end of their design life in South Africa means significant rigidity in the energy production system.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Water-Energy-Food Nexus Index: A Tool to Support Integrated Resource Planning, Management and Security

Simpson¹,

Jewitt²,

Becker³

et al. 2022

Front. Water

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The call for measuring synergies and trade-offs between water, energy, and food is increasing worldwide. This article presents the development and application of a country-level index that has been calculated for 181 nations using open databases. Following an assessment of 87 water-, energy-, and food-related indicators, 21 were selected to constitute the Water-Energy-Food (WEF) Nexus Index. In this article, the WEF Nexus Index is utilized to assess the Southern African Development Community, where it demonstrates that food security is an area of concern, while the potential for beneficially exploiting water resources and energy projects exists in several countries. Water for agriculture could be achieved through the drought-proofing of rainfed agriculture and systematic irrigation development, with energy as the critical enabler. Neither the composite indicator nor the WEF nexus approach is the panacea that will solve all the significant development or environmental challenges facing humanity. However, they could contribute to integrated resource management and policy-making and are complementary to the Sustainable Development Goals. In this study, the methodology set out by the Joint Research Centre's Competence Center on Composite Indicators and Scoreboards has been followed. A set of visualizations associated with the WEF Nexus Index have been compiled in an interactive website, namely www.wefnexusindex.org.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Water-Energy-Food Nexus Index: A Tool to Support Integrated Resource Planning, Management and Security

Simpson¹,

Jewitt²,

Becker³

et al. 2022

Front. Water

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show abstract

“…This paper seeks to geolocate the potential of the African continent for utility-scale, grid-connected solar PV and onshore wind farms. As indicated by Gies [15] despite the fact that Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Morocco and South Africa are driving renewable energy development, a significant barrier to project implementation in the African continent is the unavailability of high-resolution wind and solar resource potential maps that would allow investors to make informed decisions pertaining to investments. Consequently, it would be useful to develop a high-resolution mapping of the solar and wind resource potentials in Africa in order to bridge this knowledge gap and attract investments for utility-scale solar and wind energy projects at spatially optimum sites to help avert a fossil fuel lock-in.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Geospatial multi-criteria analysis for identifying optimum wind and solar sites in Africa: Towards effective power sector decarbonization

Doorga

Hall

Eyre

2022

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews

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“…Wind power is widely accepted as one of the future alternatives for fossil fuels and to combat climate change. 1,2 Faced by increasingly disruptive climate, the world needs to accelerate its pace and geographic scale in wind-turbine installation. 3 Such ambitious targets have been made in various international and national roadmaps for wind-power development.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%