Financing Sustainable Energy Access with Oil Revenues in Sub-Saharan Africa: Trends and Strategies

Switching on an Environmentally Friendly and Affordable Light in Africa: Evaluation of the Role of Natural Gas

“…Maisonnier (1999) identified technology, economics and environmental considerations as the main factors that are driving natural gas consumption in the power sector. Globally, natural gas consumption has been increasing due to the following factors: First, gas is cleaner than coal to burn and cheaper than crude oil (Ackah 2014). For instance, natural gas possesses some attractive characteristics such as the limited carbon emissions, operational flexibility and efficiency (Akkurt et al 2010).…”

“…Natural gas is generally considered a bridge between non-renewable and renewable energy due to its attractive environmental qualities. Unlike crude, which is traded on the World market, natural gas is traded regionally so there are the North American, European and Asia-Pacific gas markets, Africa has no gas market but bilateral agreements (Ackah 2014;Adom et al 2012). Shahbaz et al (2013) reviewed the literature on natural gas demand and highlighted three important points.…”

“…Africa's power situation has been described as having the characteristics of the paradox of plenty (Ackah 2018). Indeed, while Africa has unlimited solar potential estimated to be 10 terawatts, abundant hydro (350 Gigawatts), wind (110 Gigawatts) and geothermal (15 Gigawatts), West, Central and East Africa have electricity access rate of 47 per cent, 25 per cent and 23 per cent, respectively.…”