Political will and collaboration for electric power reform through renewable energy in Africa

Historical trends in global energy policy and renewable power system issues in Sub-Saharan Africa: The case of solar PV

“…At the present time, modern renewable resources (hydro, solar, wind, geothermal and bioenergy) account for less than 2 % of the energy mix in Sub-Saharan Africa [89]. Among these energies, solar potential is substantial throughout the subcontinent [19,21], which explains why in rural areas, except for traditional use of solid biomass [14], solar energy is favored over other renewable resources, both in terms of existing facilities [24] and promoted energy schemes [21,22]. Regarding off-grid rural electrification, renewable energy policies are also mainly relying on this potential [21,23].…”

“…Globally, electricity supply using solar energy power systems is carried out through concentrating solar power (CSP) and photovoltaic technologies; the installed PV capacity is however currently 40 times larger than the CSP capacity [24]. In Sub-Saharan Africa, stand-alone PV systems, especially SHS, remain the most frequently encountered applications for providing electricity to remote areas as well as the most instigated in rural energy schemes [21][22][23][24].…”

“…It has been shaping the global policy framework since the nineties, starting with establishment and ratification of both UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol by most of the countries in the world [9,10]. This global framework has been then implemented locally in national climate change policies, from developed to developing countries, including Sub-Saharan Africa [21,22,130,131]. In this way, GHG emission reduction targets of the Kyoto Protocol have directly and indirectly supported the use of renewable power sources, resulting in many local policies having sparkled the tremendous growth of these resources, especially the modern sector such as wind or solar PV [11,24,40].…”

The Climate Finance and Energy Investment Dilemma in Africa

“…Another valuable benefit from resource-toneed energy conversion strategies is that they can promote the diffusion of technologies and solar appliances, thereby catalyzing the market for the technologies, and hence spur industrial activity and job creation in order to satisfy this market and demand (Batidzirai et al, 2009) as well as push the prices of the technologies and appliances further down. In order to achieve this, what is needed is political will, collaboration, and transparent energy policies to facilitate the dissemination of renewable energy technologies (Chineke & Ezike, 2010;Pegels, 2010). Accordingly, it has been shown that countries such as Tunisia and Algeria consider renewable energy key to their sustainable development, and hence use a combination of national funds and renewable energy targets to increase the deployment of renewable technologies such as solar water heaters (Ghezlouna, Ouchera & Cherguia, 2012).…”

Solar energy potential atlas for planning energy system off-grid electrification in the Republic of Djibouti

“…Among them, renewable energies present a reliable profile for an economical and sustainable development, especially for rural and stand alone populations [1][2][3][4]. As Africa presents important renewable resources [3], integration of these energies is part of the main policies across the continent [2,5].…”