COVID-19 and energy access: An opportunity or a challenge for the African continent?

Abstract

As the COVID-19 pandemic gains ground in the African continent, it will create havoc and unprecedented health and economic crisis. The crisis has exposed the robustness and resilience of the economies and services such as health systems around the world and it is disaster in the making while the pandemic is spreading fast to the African continent. This is alarming mainly because the continent has weak health system compounded by low access to modern and reliable electricity. It is also anticipated that the crisis will be brought ample opportunities and the African governments and the people should make coordinated and concerted effort in developing conducive business environment and exploit the opportunities presented to facilitate energy access focusing on clean and renewable energy technologies. This is a big test for the continent and thus it will either brought prosperity through facilitating universal energy access by effectively utilizing the opportunities brought by the crisis or the lack of energy access will continue affecting communities the ability to improve their livelihoods.

Impacts of COVID-19 on energy demand and consumption: Challenges, lessons and emerging opportunities

“…Coordination and collaborations are crucial for energy access [21] , energy security [62] , and energy justice [146] , especially in less developed countries, e.g. African continent [147] . The strategic management framework [148] could be enhanced quantitatively to manage global energy resources and energy strategies post-pandemics.…”

Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Energy Systems and Electric Power Grids—A Review of the Challenges Ahead

“…Europe [3,6,7,11,12,18,30,32,33,39] Italy, France, Germany, Spain Asia [3,5,10,18,[27][28][29]34,35,39] China, India, Japan Africa [19,36,37,39] South Africa Australia [40] Table 3. Search expressions that were used in the literature review.…”

Impact of the Lockdown during the COVID-19 Pandemic on Electricity Use by Residential Users

“…In articles and reports on COVID-19 pandemic issues in the context of energy and energy use, the problem is usually analysed from a global (e.g., [1][2][3][4]), regional (e.g., [5,6]) or national point of view. The COVID-19 impacts on the power systems and markets in European countries were considered in [7].…”