Africa – High wind energy potential not used enough

According to many energy experts Africa has huge energy potential but very few African countries are really using wind energy. The three countries that are using wind energy the most are Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia but even these countries have been slow to push for more investments in wind energy sector.

These three countries supply around 95 percent of the 563 megawatts of total installed capacity on the black continent. Wind energy sector has already started paying up mostly because of demand from Europe, where countries are under pressure to reduce CO₂ emissions so they turn to different renewable energy sectors.

South Africa could soon be joining these three North-African countries as the country's new energy minister Dipuo Peters said how South Africa wants independent power producers to add 400 MW from wind to the grid within the next three years.

Egypt, on the other hand has set a target for wind to make up 12 percent of its total energy by 2020, with wind farms adding 7,200 MW to the grid.


Wind energy could also become important energy source for eastern and western Africa, especially after serious droughts raised doubts about the reliability of hydro sources the regions currently largely depend on. Kenya's Lake Turkana Wind Power already announced how it plans to produce 300 MW of electricity by 2012 from wind power in the north of the country.

These plans, if they fulfill will only use small share of Africa's total wind energy potential. This is because African countries have based their economies on coal which means that countries should reform their energy sectors and upgrade transmission and distribution networks to better wind power use. This will of course be hard to do, especially given lack of political will, and most of all available funds, in many African countries.

But still, countries like Egypt are showing that renewable energy policy definitely has its advantages, and that African countries should set more ambitious targets to better exploit of not only wind energy but other renewable energy sectors too. This example should be followed in other African countries, especially in Africa's richest country South Africa that according to Nano Energy, an energy consultancy has wind energy potential of at least 60,000 MW but is not doing enough to use it because of fossil fuels dominance, and lack of political will.

Funds for using wind energy sector shouldn't be really a big problem, because many EU countries are offering loans with favorable interest payments for investments to renewable energy sector. Start-up capital can be easily found; all what countries must show is political will on more emphasis to renewable energy sector.

Wind energy isn't only renewable energy source that Africa can build upon, Africa also gets vast amounts of sunlight throughout the whole year, and so solar energy is another option to consider. With proper politics and wise investments Africa could soon become very important source of renewable energy, capable to not only supply its energy needs, but also to satisfy large share of EU energy demand.

Sahara solar project facts

Sometimes called the Saudi Arabia of solar energy, the Sahara could soon be home to dozens of huge solar farms under a new EU supergrid initiative to supply the continent's electricity needs with renewable energy.

The 20 companies aim to sign a memorandum of understanding to found the Desertec Industrial Initiative, which would then commission studies on various projects in North Africa.

Siemens AG, Germany’s biggest engineering company, and Munich Re are holding talks with utilities on developing solar plants in the Sahara desert to supply 15 percent of Europe’s power needs by mid-century.

Desertec Industrial Initiative main informations.

The German companies want to harness a free fuel source that’s plentiful in one of the world’s poorest regions and sell the power to industrialized Europe.

The plants and transmission lines may cost 400 billion euros ($555 billion) through 2050 and stretch across 130 square kilometers (50 square miles) of the North African desert. Just for reference: Manhattan Island is 58.8 square kilometers (22.7 square miles) in area.

20 gigawatts of concentrated solar power (CSP) - the equivalent of 20 large conventional power plants - could be harvested each year by 2020 if the project got off the ground.

The first power station with a capacity of 2 gigawatts in Tunisia with power lines to Italy would take five years to build once it gets regulatory approval.

A possible long-term project could be a 100 gigawatt solar thermal power station in northern Africa and the Middle East. It could be finalised by 2050 with power lines connecting it to central Europe.

Of the anticipated costs, the power plants would account for about 350 billion euro ($486 billion) while transmission lines to Europe would cost about 50 billion euros ($69 billion).

The project would rely on a technique called "concentrating solar power" (CSP) to generate electricity; a CSP station uses hundreds of huge mirrors covering a vast swathe of land to focus the sun's rays onto a central metal pillar filled with water. The super-hot water, which can reach temperatures as high as 800°C, is then vaporized and channelled off to drive turbines that produce the electricity.

The main reason for favouring CSP over photovoltaics is its ability to supply power on demand for 24 hours a day. PV is more expensive than CSP and needs expensivesystems for storing electricity, such as pumped storage.

Sahara solar project (illustrative).

Power plants will not only generate electricity that they can sell to Europe. In addition to energy generation, the stations would be used as desalination facilities to provide desert countries with much-needed supplies of fresh water. This scheme is also known as Desertec technology.

The Sahara covers huge parts of Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Western Sahara, Sudan and Tunisia. It is one of three distinct physiographic provinces of the African massive physiographic division.

Solar insolation levels are high near equator, and low around Earth's poles. For comparison, consider the average annual insolation levels of these two extreme locations:
* Oslo , Norway = 2.27 kWh/m 2/day (very low)
* Miami , Florida = 5.26 kWh/m 2/day (very high).

In six hours the world's deserts receive more energy than mankind consumes in a year.

Influence of the current financial crisis on this project is yet to be seen, but with governmental financial support of EU countries it is realistic that project will be successful.

Find out more about this project in following video:

Solar energy pushed back because of recession

Economic recession and credit crisis is having serious effect on future development of solar energy sector. A year ago optimism around solar energy was constantly rising with many energy experts proclaiming it as renewable energy source NO.1 , and one of the top future energy sources. What has happened in only one year that changed all of this? First of al investors have started thinking twice before investing into solar energy sector mostly because of falling government tax receipts. What investors want are some positive incentives and this is something that has been very rarely seen in last couple of months.

Some energy analysts claim the same scenario will continue in following months and how we haven't still seen the worst. Their major concerns are that higher cost of finance will continue to prevent further growth of solar energy sector, which will put much more emphasis on some cheaper energy projects. We must also not forget that solar energy is only in its early stage of a 30–50 year run after which according to many energy experts should show its full potential.


Cost competitiveness is still factor that is sorely missed in solar energy sector. Energy is still all about more efficiency and less funding and this is something solar energy still isn't providing. There is no doubt that once solar energy becomes competitive with fossil fuels, we should expect completely different story. Financial incentives would of course have to play major role in achieving this competitiveness but this can be only expected once financial crisis is over.

There are already some positive experiences in solar energy sector that should be good basis for future projects. For instance experience in the flat-panel and semiconductor industry indicates that even without technology or efficiency gains, productivity improvements are likely in the 10%–30% range per year, with annual yield improvements of 10%–15%.

Cost decline is the most important thing that solar energy needs to fully blossom. Once costs decline, solar energy technology is likely to advance. In order to achieve this there would also have to be a network that would connect resellers and distribution, making technology transfer fairly easy.

Of course some other factors will also play important role like geography and politics. Geography is very important factor that will determine the shipping costs as well as manufacturing location, and politics should provide incentives and tax benefits to attract major players in solar energy sector. Solar energy projects have been steadily growing in China, India, Korea, Spain, and in many other countries around the globe. Good old Uncle Sam is also focusing more on solar energy sector, especially in sunny states like Arizona and California.

So we are definitely seeing some positive movement in solar energy sector but sadly not as much as we would want it. It will be very interesting to see whether solar energy sector will experience big boost once credit crunch is over, or will primary attention turn to some other energy source.

There is absolutely no doubt that solar energy has extremely high potential and that we should give this energy sector a chance that it definitely deserves. We mustn't forget that energy demand is growing each year and that we should be already thinking how to satisfy our future energy needs. Solar energy could be one of the best solutions, not only because of its high potential but also because it is ecologically acceptable energy source.