Energy in Africa

Abstract

Energy in Africa Challenges and Opportunities SpringerBriefs in EnergySpringerBriefs in Energy presents concise summaries of cutting-edge research and practical applications in all aspects of Energy. Featuring compact volumes of 50-125 pages, the series covers a range of content from professional to academic. Typical topics might include:• A snapshot of a hot or emerging topic • A contextual literature review • A timely report of state-of-the art analytical techniques • An in-depth case study • A presentation of core concepts that students must understand in order to make independent contributions.Briefs allow authors to present their ideas and readers to absorb them with minimal time investment. Briefs will be published as part of Springer's eBook collection, with millions of users worldwide. In addition, Briefs will be available for individual print and electronic purchase. Briefs are characterized by fast, global electronic dissemination, standard publishing contracts, easy-to-use manuscript preparation and formatting guidelines, and expedited production schedules. We aim for publication 8-12 weeks after acceptance.Both solicited and unsolicited manuscripts are considered for publication in this series. Briefs can also arise from the scale up of a planned chapter. Instead of simply contributing to an edited volume, the author gets an authored book with the space necessary to provide more data, fundamentals and background on the subject, methodology, future outlook, etc. Open Access This book is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this book are included in the book's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the book's Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affi...

Inter-sector Linkages for Renewable Energy Development in Low-Income African Countries

“…The countries (including the most remote ones from the equator) receive long hours of sunshine and are well positioned to develop solar technologies for supplying heat and power to the most remote communities. As pointed out by Hafner et al (2018), options for power generation from solar energy include utility-size PV (conventional or concentrated photovoltaic), the CSP (concentrated solar thermal power), and the small-scale PV systems that are suitable for off-grid power generation. This form of rural electrification promises to steer renewable energy development in SSA for domestic and commercial units (IEA 2017).…”

“…The increased availability and lowering of prices of PV equipment are contributing to the rise in the deployment of solar systems. With time, mini-grids are becoming a very popular and cheap approach for producing off-grid electricity (Hafner et al 2018).…”

“…Incidentally, despite all these opportunities, organic materials are not optimally processed into usable solid, liquid, or gaseous fuels in most LIAC. Rather, it is combusted directly for cooking/heating purposes for both domestic and industrial processes (Hafner et al 2018). Development of projects to convert bio-waste into cleaner energy is either non-existent or still at infancy stages in many LIAC (Zamparas et al 2019).…”

“…In some rural areas of East Africa, small-scale biomass gasification systems compare competitively with other electrification options such as diesel engines (IREA 2015). However, compared to other WtEs, gasifier technology is relatively new in LIAC, and majority of projects are at either planning or demonstration stages (Hafner et al 2018). The constraints facing expansion of biomass gasification relate to insecurity of feedstock supply, low levels of research and development, inadequate awareness/information, and institutional barriers (Muzee et al 2012).…”

“…Potential beneficiaries of large-scale biogas development include crop and livestock farmers; small, medium, and large food processors; educational institutions; hospitals; and commercial entities. While LIACs could be described as a prospective biogas market with great potential to generate electricity from biogas, the opportunities are yet to be optimized (Hafner et al 2018). Benefits from biogas production which are economic, social, and environmental include promotion of sanitation, reduction of risks of deforestation, improving of energy security, creation of jobs, reduction of fuel importation and improvement of management of solid and liquid waste, and reduced contamination of water bodies.…”