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1 Energy consumption (left-kgoe per capita) and electricity consumption (right-kWh per capita) in 2006 in several African countries. For comparison, the 2008 average EU-27 corresponding figures amounted to 3510 kgoe per capita and 6384 kWh percapita, respectively. (UN-WB, 2011)
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This report summarizes current knowledge at the Joint Research Centre regarding Renewable Energy in
Africa. It assesses current energy consumption and the share of renewables in African states, and attempts to
estimate the technical potential of available resources of solar, wind, biomass and hydropower which could be
economically used to provide e...
Citations
... Distribution of biomass across the continent (sourceBelward et al. 2012) Installed production, and briquetting/pelleting. Cogeneration, in particular, is a wellestablished technology in Africa, with bagasse as a common feedstock used to simultaneously produce process heat and electricity. ...
This chapter delves into the crucial realm of renewable energy production and utilisation in Africa and addresses the pressing need to leverage Africa's abundant renewable resources for economic growth, energy security, and environmental preservation. This research aims to underscore the transformative potential of renewable energy adoption in Africa and to examine the multifaceted implications for both policy and practice. Utilising a comprehensive review of existing literature and data, this chapter offers insights into the current state of renewable energy in Africa, emphasizing its impact on energy access, job creation, and climate change mitigation. The findings demonstrate that renewable energy not only addresses energy poverty but also drives economic development and contributes to global sustainability goals. Moreover, the research reveals the significance of clear policy frameworks, innovative financing mechanisms, and community engagement in facilitating the transition to renewable energy sources. Ultimately, this chapter underscores the pivotal role of renewable energy in Africa's sustainable development journey. It highlights the imperative for policymakers, investors, and stakeholders to collaborate in unlocking the continent's renewable energy potential, fostering economic growth, and safeguarding the environment. This research offers valuable insights for both practitioners and researchers, advocating for a cleaner, more equitable, and resilient energy future in Africa.
... However, these are polluting regardless of their sizes and have high operating costs [23]. A comparison study [24] showed that for much of sub-Saharan Africa electricity from Solar PV could be cheaper when compared to diesel generators over the longer term. The lower capital investment (CAPEX) of diesel generator supersedes the high CAPEX of PV with its running cost related to expensive fuel. ...
Power outage is a regular occurrence in most African cities due to increasing energy demand from population growth and commercial activities outstripping the grid capacity. This results in disruption to normal life putting stress on businesses and affecting development across the continent. This review paper investigates the potential of solar photovoltaic (PV) in African cities from three perspectives. Firstly, the potential of rooftop PV in the context of the political, economic, social, technical, legal and environmental aspects (PESTLE) is evaluated. Thereafter, sustainable waste management of solar PV panels is reviewed in anticipation for the upcoming wave of end-of life solar panels. Finally, the prospect of dual use building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) as power generators and building components is investigated from case studies in Africa. Most studies highlight the strong potential of rooftop PV and BIPV due to the availability of high radiance in the continent. However, our review shows that affordability and lack of investment acts as a significant barrier to mass adoption of this technology which could be remedied by implementing appropriate energy policy and financing schemes. Alternative financing of PV products and service solutions such as leasing, pay monthly, pay-as-you-go, and subscriptions are emerging as popular options, and these approaches seem to act as drivers to market expansion. The review also emphasizes on the need for effective and sustainable waste management of solar PV products through implementing appropriately designed recycling schemes. This will need to be adopted now to ensure success and to prevent a waste management crisis in the future for the African continent.
... About 55% of this energy is obtained from woody perennials, crop residues and animal waste (Republic of Kenya, 2018). Reliance on firewood for cooking is also still popular in most developing countries, largely due to their inability to afford cleaner energy sources like electricity and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (Belward et al., 2011). The commensurate pressure on tree cover will exacerbate the impacts of climate change through persistent decline in this carbon sink (Waudo et al., 2023). ...
Although firewood is still the dominant source of energy in the majority of rural households in Navakholo, its sustainable availability is threatened by a steady decline in tree cover as much land gets converted to agricultural use. Opportunities for expanding energy security in such places reside in previously untapped potential for value addition on biomass energy sources. The broad objective of this research was to enhance availability and access to biomass energy while at the same time conserving tree cover for posterity. The specific objective was to assess opportunities for energy security through value-addition on available biomass energy sources. Data was collected using a questionnaire survey and focus group discussions in each of the five Wards of the Sub-County. Descriptive statistics and content analysis of responses were used to analyse the data and generate knowledge to inform future decision-making. Although Navakholo sub-county is a maize and sugarcane zone, results showed that value-addition practices on these two biomass energy sources such as through briquetting are non-existent. Much of the maize cobs are directly used as low energy fuel or simply left to rot away. Cow dung, which has a potential for energy provision through conversion into energy balls is usually used as manure in the farm. In addition, investment in biogas production is untapped because of the high initial costs. Only rudimentary approaches such as use of saw dust in cook stoves, and extinguishing firewood and charcoal after the day’s cooking are used to ease the pressure on available firewood. Although charcoal is a value-added product on wood fuel, respondents did not see it from that perspective. It was instead viewed as an energy alternative for those who could afford it. Opportunities for other value-added products like briquettes from charcoal, dust, saw dust and sugarcane cutting singly or in blended form remains unexploited. With appropriate exposure and capacity building on binder material and supply of press equipment, availability of biomass energy can be increased through the conversion of readily available maize cobs into briquettes. Secondary feedstock like cow dung, charcoal dust and saw dust may also be converted or used as binder material.
... 30 The continent has wind and solar resources in both its north and southern parts, large hydro resources in most regions, biomass resources throughout much of the continent, and geothermal resources in its eastern part. 31 The continent has the potential to be at the forefront of renewable energy transition even though all these resources are only slightly exploited. Significant efforts have been made over the past two decades to integrate renewable energy technologies for power generation on the continent and nearly 2% of the worldwide funding in this field has been directed towards Africa, with significant regional disparities. ...
Africa is the driest of the world continents with the challenge of drylands, including arid, semi-arid, and dry sub-humid regions, covering a substantial 43% of the continent's land area and...
... Biomass is currently the most widespread form of renewable energy and its exploitation is increasing due to concerns over the devastating impacts of fossil fuel and environmental and health concerns associated with other forms of energy (Tursi, 2019). Reliance on firewood for cooking is still popular, largely due to the inability to afford cleaner energy sources like electricity (IEA, 2010;Belward et al., 2011). As compared to the use of agricultural residues, which are generally regarded as free, high prices of fuel wood at Kshs 800-1200 per 0.65m 3 of wood have exerted pressure on households (Ndegwa, 2010). ...
To date, most rural households in the Navakholo constituency rely on wood fuel for domestic energy requirements, especially cooking. The increasing population is putting a lot of pressure on tree cover, its role in climate change mitigation and biodiversity conservation notwithstanding. Switching to energy alternatives within the biomass domain presents a policy option to increase access to household energy. This paper reports on the emerging trends in this regard. Spatial survey was used to track land use and tree cover changes from 1990-2022. A questionnaire survey was used to collect data from a sample size of 395 respondents selected through systematic random sampling. A majority (78.9%) of the respondents indicated having adequate (covering over 10% of the land) tree cover, with woodlots accounting for 39.8% and trees planted along fences at 37.3%. Nevertheless, 43.4% of the households indicated that the fuelwood supply was not able to meet household energy demand. Chi-square analysis indicated that there was a significant relationship between household biomass usage, tree density and adequacy of fuel wood in the area (p = .004 and p = .004), indicating that firewood remains the choice energy source despite the apparent diminishing tree cover. This paper calls for the need to increase tree cover and access to alternative biomass options.
... In addition to this, the laws on child protection to prevent child labour (13-15 years of age) are not properly applied and controlled, which, along with the existing economic needs, allows minors to work in the landfills [14], leading to a large number of early deaths associated with the exposure to toxic emissions and substances from the landfills [12]. Furthermore, with regard to energy supply problems, most of the regions used as international dumping grounds are considered by the International Energy Agency to be in a situation of 'electricity poverty' [15], with great technical and economic difficulties in accessing electricity [16], with less than 50% of the population in countries such as Mauritania, Togo and Benin, and 23-25% in Burkina Faso and some regions of Nigeria [17]. As an example, in West Sub-Saharan Africa, 57% of schools do not have electricity and 60% of health centres do not have a reliable supply [18]. ...
... An estimation of 2,500 hours of use based on the wind speeds mentioned above [15] would yield an approximate production of 75 kWh per year. Table 1 shows the power demand of a house of 2-3 people connected to the power grid, taking into account: the existence of incandescent luminaire or similar, which is the predominant use of the region [26], the use of basic appliances for heat generation in the kitchen and the use of mobile devices. ...
... In this way, both partial and total self-consumption of the building would greatly favour the population and the power system. This is due to the fact that the proposed self-generation system would facilitate the supply of the most disadvantaged areas, which, for the particular case of Togo and Nigeria, are those less populated and further away from the coast to the north, where, incidentally, the wind is stronger [15]. Moreover, self-consumption would prevent the losses generated by the transport of electricity and the faulty connections, since a large number of electricity generation plants are located near the coast for reasons related to the import of primary resources [26], and the reach and quality of the power system in the northern regions is deficient [25]. ...
... This solar potential is fairly distributed, with over 80 % of African land receiving more than 2 MWh. m − 2 annually [12]. In Central Africa, the amount of sunshine is comparable to or even greater than in many other regions of the world, which have made solar energy a significant source of their energy consumption. ...
This paper presents a thermodynamic analysis of an organic Rankine cycle with a water-loop (ORC-WL) as an efficient means of heat regeneration and saving Water Consumption (WC). The ORC-WL was simulated with wet, dry and isentropic refrigerants such as R717, R600a and R1234yf, respectively, in order to compare its technical performance to the conventional ORC (C-ORC) and ORC with internal heat exchanger (ORC-IHE). The thermodynamic analysis developed in the EES software was used to carry out the Energy Efficiency (EnE), Exergy Efficiency (ExE), Net Power Output (NPO), and WC as comparison performance parameters. A specific study has shown that the ORC-IHE, due to its remarkable contribution to the degradation of available energy and with a high WC compared to that of C-ORC, can be disqualified in favour of the ORC-WL which considerably improves these parameters thanks to the water-loop. For the same operating conditions and with reference to R600a, When C-ORC exhibited an EnE of 8.70 %, an ExE of 67.01 %, NPO of 8.57 kW and WC of 0.71 kg.s⁻¹, those of ORC-IHE were 10.08 %; ExE of 64.87 %; NPO of 9.11 kW and WC of 5.30 kg.s.⁻¹, respectively, whereas those of ORC-WL were 9.95 %, 84.85 %, 9.95 kW and 0.82 kg.s⁻¹, respectively. The study on monitoring of evaporating temperature, superheating, and pinch showed that the ORC-WL can operate with evaporating temperature and superheating above 90 °C and 15 °C, respectively. A pinch of no more than 3 °C, on the other hand, is ideal. Finally, wet refrigerants are not suitable for ORC-WL, and dry refrigerants offer better performance than isentropic refrigerants.
... Additionally, maintaining a clean hydrogen economy would not only decrease exposure to geopolitical and oil price instability, but also decrease the cost of energy for countries which depend on diesel (Is and Hydrogen, 2021). In order to overcome weakness and disparity in some areas and to provide them with permanent energy supply, excess renewable energy will be stored to green hydrogen's capacity (Belward et al., 2011). The energy will be used in producing electricity that will replace coalbased electricity. ...
... While the production from the coal gasification which is around 23% of global hydrogen supply, it results in emitting greenhouse gas emissions around 19 kg CO 2 e per each kg of hydrogen which is called gray hydrogen. Another method is producing the blue hydrogen, which is fossil hydrogen, with carbon capture and storage (CCS), this reduce the CO 2 emissions to 1.5-4 kg CO 2 e released to the atmosphere per each kg of hydrogen (Anon, 2022d;Belward et al., 2011). Furthermore, H 2 can be produced from NG by high-temperature pyrolysis or by thermal cracking of methane (methane pyrolysis). ...
... Furthermore, H 2 can be produced from NG by high-temperature pyrolysis or by thermal cracking of methane (methane pyrolysis). This method produces turquoise hydrogen, and estimated to emit about 4 kg CO2 e per each kg of hydrogen (Anon, 2022d;Belward et al., 2011). ...
Africa is rich with an abundance of renewable energy sources that can help meeting the continent’s demand for electricity to promote economic growth and meet global targets for CO2 reduction. Green Hydrogen is considered one of the most promising technologies for energy generation, transportation, and storage. In this paper, the prospects of green hydrogen production potential in Africa are investigated along with its usage for future implementation. Moreover, an overview of the benefits of shifting to green Hydrogen technology is presented. The current African infrastructure and policies are tested against future targets and goals. Furthermore, the study embraces a detailed theoretical, environmental, technological, and economic assessment putting the local energy demands into consideration
... aviation shipping and heavy-duty vehicle market. In addition to that, it can be injected with a certain share to the existing natural gas grids up for minimizing the consumption of natural gas, thereby reducing gas emissions in end-use sectors as gas turbines in the power sector and heat demand in buildings [10][11][12][13][14][15]. ...
Africa is rich with an abundance of renewable energy sources that can help in meeting the continent's demand for electricity to promote economic growth and meet global targets for CO2 reduction. Green hydrogen is considered one of the most promising technologies for energy generation, transportation, and storage. In this paper, the prospects of green hydrogen production potential in different countries in Africa are investigated along with its usage for future implementation. Moreover, an overview of the benefits of shifting to green hydrogen technology is presented. The current African infrastructure and policies are tested against future targets and goals.KeywordsGreenHydrogenElectrolysisPower to XRenewable energiesPolicyHydrogen
... .About 35% of the energy supply in developing countries is from biomass (Mengjie and Suzhen, 1994). According to Belward et al. (2011) charcoal and rewood account for more than 80% of the energy use in the sub-Sahara African countries. ...
... Charcoal energy covers more than 95% of urban energy demand (Belward et al., 2011). As the population increased in urban areas the demand for charcoal increased. ...
The source of energy at household level in Ethiopia mostly comes from wood biomass. The increasing population and shrinkage of natural forests resulted in shortage of wood supply for energy. Hence, looking for fast-growing with better fuel wood characteristics is required to access wood and for the supply of fuelwood consumption. This study aims to select tree species with better biomass and good fuel wood characteristics. Seven tree species: Acacia polyacantha, Acacia abyssinica, Eucalyptus camaldulensis, Albizia lophantha, Acacia melanoxylon, Acacia decurrens, and Eucalyptus globulus were selected to study the growth performance, biomass and fuel wood characteristics. Six trees per species were randomly selected and harvested for fuel wood property (wood moisture, ash content and fiber content) analysis. Acacia abyssinica, Acacia polyacantha and Eucalyptus camaldunesis showed better survival rates than other species. The better height performance was recorded from Acacia .decurrens, Acacia polyacantha, Eucalyptus camaldulensis, and Eucalyptus globules . A. polyacantha and A.decurrens provided the highest biomass. A. decurrens showed the lowest wood moisture (31.1%) and wood density (0.76 g/cm3), and the lowest ash content (2.2%). Hence, A. decurrens and A. polyacantha are recommended for fuel wood due to high density, low moisture, and low ash content and good biomass production.