Reversing power shortages in sub-Saharan Africa through renewable energy investment
Sub-Saharan Africa is classified as the region in the world with the highest “Low Human Development” by the United Nations. One of the major reasons is the perennial poor electricity access people from the region face which hinders economic development. FRANK ELEANYA reviews the latest report from Renewable Energy Network (REN21) which argues that sub-Saharan can leverage on renewable energy to eliminate pandemic power shortages.
Endemic power shortages in West Africa with an expanding population of just over 334.6 million have been the major deterrent to accelerating economic development in the region.
In 2011, sub-Saharan Africa accounted for almost half (47.6 percent) of all people in the globe without access to electricity and is the only region in the world where the rate of progress in expanding access to electricity and non-solid fuels fell behind population growth between 1990.
National electricity access rates vary widely within the region, ranging from Niger which had an electrification rate of just 9 percent in 2011 to Cape Verde which has achieved almost universal access. There are wide disparities between accesses in urban versus rural areas which remain underserved by grid networks supplying major cities. Rural electricity access ranges from 1 percent in Guinea and Sierra Leone to 70 percent in Cape Verde.
Threats to energy security in ECOWAS region include poor system reliability, limited infrastructure, fuel import dependence, and heavy reliance on fossil fuels, hydropower, and traditional biomass resources. Dependence on fossil or hydropower sources also pose additional challenges in that they leave countries vulnerable to volatile global fuel prices like the one currently experienced, variations in annual and seasonal output from hydropower plants, and supply disruption. Dependence on biomass on the other hand has led to significant deforestation in several ECOWAS member countries.
As of 2014, only two member countries have over 1 gigawatt (GW) of hydropower capacity. Nigeria leads the region with barely under 2GW installed. It is followed by Ghana with a total of 1.6GW. Additional hydropower capacity is installed in Cote d’Ivoire (604MW), Mali (300MW), and Guinea (126.8MW) and so on.
Renewable energy technologies play an increasingly important role in power generation. Expanding access to modern, reliable, and affordable energy services is a key priority, prompting inter-state cooperation in crucial areas including capacity building, policy development and implementation, and investment.
Improving energy efficiency fell among the most cost-effective solutions for offsetting the rising energy costs, unpredictable and uncertain energy supply, and growing demand for energy services face by ECOWAS member states. Currently, the region’s continued reliance on aging and inefficient equipment (often acquired second-hand) combined with the inefficient use of traditional biomass results in low efficiency ratings.
On the whole, all the ECOWAS member states have an average energy intensity of 14.5 mega joules (MJ) per USD, well above the continental average of 11 MJ/USD. The ECOWAS Heads of State have prioritised energy efficiency as an essential tool to meet the region’s energy supply challenge, a commitment formalised with the 2013 adoption of the ECOWAS Energy Efficiency Policy (EEEP).
The objectives of the EEEP include cooking, lighting, buildings, and electricity distribution as high-impact opportunities for improving efficiency, and outlines targets and priority measures to reduce energy use and increase productivity through the development of National Energy Efficiency Action Plans (NEEAP) in each member state.
Progress to energy sector development is hampered by technical and non-technical losses in the grid networks within the region. There are variations on the amount of energy losses by each member state, estimated average losses fall between 21.5 percent and 25 percent while national losses range from 15 percent to 50 percent.
There are two successful programmes pioneered by Ghana and Nigeria which have sought to reduce losses by improving and maintaining existing equipment, as well as removing illegal connections and optimising billing to increase cost recovery.
It is recommended that for future infrastructure planning across the region decentralised renewable have the potential to mitigate losses by reducing the need for extensive transmission infrastructure. Another important area to prioritize for efficiency improvement in ECOWAS is lighting. Introducing efficiency measures is one of the most cost-effective ways to reduce electricity consumption during peak periods.
The ECOWAS Renewable Energy Policy has also identified transition to energy-efficient clean cook stoves and cleaner cooking fuels as another critical component. The use of these cook stoves has a potential of drastically reducing many of the negative health, environmental, and social impacts associated with the use of traditional biomass.
The final priority area of the EEEP is in building which accounts for 30 – 40 percent of total final energy demand around the world. With a rapidly growing population, urban expansion, and projected economic growth, buildings’ contribution to energy demand across Africa is expected to rise.
The importance of enacting policies that encourage the growth of renewable energy investment have been embraced by several government in the sub-Saharan region. Policies such as the ECOWAS Renewable Energy Policy (EREP) and the ECOWAS Energy Efficiency Policy (EEEP) show the strong commitment that ECOWAS member states have in developing sustainable energy sectors. Through these policies, the countries have committed to a host of ambitious regional energy development goals.
Similarly, public financing from national, regional, and international institutions has also been instrumental in the funding of renewable energy development in the ECOWAS region.
The REN21 report, titled ‘ECOWAS Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Status Report presents up-to-date, reliable data and information on the sustainable energy sectors of the 15 ECOWAS Member states. According to Christine Lins, Spokesperson for REN21, “It gives an overview of what is going on globally. It is a market overview which provides details of countries are making progress and what the technology output are in those areas. We have over 700 people from all around the world and we have grown over the years.”