By Yange Ikyaa
Solarplaza has unveiled ‘The Solar Future: Deserts of Africa’, a new platform aimed at exploring the opportunities that accompany solar PV development in Africa’s deserts. This new two-day event will be hosted in Dakar, Senegal, beginning from March 13 to 14, 2019.
On its part, the African Development Bank (AfDB) has developed its “Desert to Power Initiative,” which was also part of its presentation during the Paris Agreement climate change talks at COP24 in Katowice, Poland earlier in December 2018. The bank insists that energy poverty in Africa is estimated to cost the continent 2-4 % GDP annually.
“At Solarplaza, we want to facilitate the solar energy sector by expanding into new markets early on, markets that capture both opportunities and challenges. We believe that, by launching our African desert platform, we keep true to our mission of positively impacting the world by accelerating the sustainable energy transition,” said Lydia van Os, Africa Lead and Project Manager at Solarplaza.
With a dispersed, but rapidly growing population, desert countries will need to tap into a combination of solar solutions, such as utility-scale power plants, mini-grids and off-grid applications, to create impact in regions that are disproportionately affected by climate change.
Fully realizing the true solar potential of the deserts of Africa will require a vast effort, one that will need to align visionary governments, courageous development finance institutions, pioneering investors and experienced developers.
Solarplaza seeks to support these efforts by creating the right platforms, such as ‘The Solar Future: Deserts of Africa’, for these parties to meet, share ideas and form effective partnerships.
As a preparation for this event, Solarplaza sought to take stock of the past, current and future initiatives related to the development of solar capacity in the African deserts, which will be used to provide context to the discussion during the event.
The conference will take a deep dive into the specifics surrounding solar project development in Africa’s desert regions, including the countries that comprise the Sahara and Sahel deserts. These barren wastelands boast some of the world’s highest solar irradiation levels and offer sufficient availability of land.
The governments that administer them are, together with financial and development institutions, actively promoting the development of solar capacity. Plans range from electrifying local communities to dreams of powering entire remote continents through the solar harvests of Africa’s deserts.
As a professional solar event organizer, Solarplaza has hosted over 100 events in 36 countries around the world, ranging from exploratory trade missions in emerging markets to large-scale conferences with more than 450 participants. The Solar Future: Deserts of Africa is Solarplaza’s 13th conference on the African continent.
AfDB has said it aims to help develop and provide 10 GW of solar energy by 2025 and supply 250 million people with green electricity including in some of the world’s poorest countries. The bank estimates that, at least, 90 million people will be connected to electricity for the first time, lifting them out of energy poverty.
Currently, 64% of the Sahel’s population – covering Senegal, Nigeria, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad, Sudan, and Eritrea – live without electricity, a major barrier to development, with consequences for education, health and business.
By harnessing the exceptional solar resource in the region, AfDB and its partners hope to transform the region.
“Energy is the foundation of human living – our entire system depends on it. For Africa right now, providing and securing sustainable energy is in the backbone of its economic growth,” said Magdalena J. Seol of AfDB’s Desert to Power Initiative, adding that “lack of energy remains as a significant impediment to Africa’s economic and social development.” The project is expected to provide many benefits to local people, improving the affordability of electricity for low income households and enabling people to transition away from unsafe and hazardous energy sources, such as kerosene, which carry health risks.
Construction of the project will also create jobs and help attract private sector involvement in renewable energy in the region.
Many women-led businesses currently face bigger barriers than men-led enterprises to accessing grid electricity, so the project has the potential to increase female participation in economic activities and decision-making processes.
The project has been launched in collaboration with the Green Climate Fund, a global pot of money created by the 194 countries who are party to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), to support developing countries adapt to and mitigate climate change. The program is designed to combine private sector capital with blended finance.
“If you look at the countries that this initiative supports, they’re the ones who are very much affected by climate change and carbon emissions from other parts of the world,” said Ms Seol.
“Given this, the investments will have a greater effect in these regions, which have a greater demand and market opportunity in the energy sector. Women are usually disproportionately negatively affected by energy access issues, and providing secure and sustainable electricity creates positive impact on the gender issue as well.”
The African continent holds 15% of the world’s population, yet is poised to shoulder nearly 50% of the estimated global climate change adaptation costs, according to AfDB data.
These costs are expected to cut across health, water supply, agriculture, and forestry, despite the continent’s minimal contribution to global emissions. However, the International Renewable Energy Agency estimates that Africa’s renewable energy potential could put it at the forefront of green energy production globally.
It is estimated to have an almost unlimited potential of solar capacity (10 TW), abundant hydro (350 GW), wind (110 GW), and geothermal energy sources (15 GW) – and a potential overall renewable energy capacity of 310 GW by 2030.
Other renewable projects in Africa include The Ouarzazate solar complex in Morocco, which is one of the largest concentrated solar plants in the world.
It has produced over 814 GWh of clean energy since 2016 and last year, the solar plant prevented 217,000 tons of CO2 being emitted. Until recently, Morocco sourced 95% of its energy needs from external sources.
In South Africa, the Bank and its partner, the Climate Investment Fund, have helped fund the Sere Wind Farm, which is an assemblage of 46 turbines supplying 100 MW to the national power grid and expected to save 6 million tonnes of greenhouse gases over its 20 year expected life span. It is currently supplying 124,000 homes with clean energy.