Wind power is expected to dominate Africa’s renewable energy sector over the next decade as the continent faces a massive struggle of providing electricity to remote communities, according to a new report by a global consultancy.

A Frost & Sullivan press release issued on Wednesday noted that the total renewable power investment in Africa, which was €2.5 billion by 2010, is expected to grow to €40 billion by the end of this decade.

“The key growth sectors will be wind turbines, solar power, geothermal energy and foreign direct investment (FDI) into energy and power infrastructure,” the release quoted Ross Bruton, Frost & Sullivan’s energy and power systems industry analyst, as saying.

The release noted that Africa is the most poorly electrified continent in the world even though it has enough energy resources to more than adequately meet its existing and growing energy needs.

“The proportion of people without electricity in Africa is higher than anywhere else on the planet, with as little as 5% of the population having direct access to electricity in some countries,” the release said, adding the need to provide electrification to remote communities is one of the key drivers of renewable energy development on the continent.

Development of the renewable energy sector in Africa will lead to a diversification of the generation mix, a decreased dependency on a singular feedstock and greater security of supply, the release said.

“Smart electricity development in Africa will be driven through grid incorporation of renewable power, and technological leapfrogging through investments,” Bruton said.

The release added that, over the next 10 years, renewable energy initiatives will be dominated by wind farm projects, such as the Ashegoda Wind Farm in Ethiopia and Tanzania’s Singida Wind Farm. Solar energy will also show good growth, mostly through South Africa’s Upington concentrating solar power and solar energy photovoltaic project and renewed interest in Desertec in North Africa.

EWEA is a strong supporter of bringing clean electricity to rural and poor areas. Its chosen charity, ‘Renewable World’, is a registered charity working with local partners in Africa, Asia and Central America to tackle poverty by providing small-scale renewable energy systems off-grid communities. EWEA is also a member of the Alliance for Rural Electrification which promotes rural electrification in developing countries, and a member of the Global Wind Energy Council, which promotes the development of wind energy in Africa.

Source: www.evwind.es

Nigeria is important to U.S. policymakers, Goldwyn said: Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton visited in August 2009; President Obama met with Nigeria’s acting president, Goodluck Jonathan, on April 11; Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson has visited a number of times; and the U.S.-Nigeria Binational Commission was launched April 6.

All these efforts, the U.S. official told the panel, are meant “to bring all the parts of our government together to work with Nigeria as partners on solving some of the core problems facing the nation.” But “the lead … on strategies and plans … will come from the acting president and his Cabinet.”

 The panel discussion was also attended by Oronto Douglas, a human rights lawyer and Niger Delta activist who co-founded Africa’s foremost environmental movement, Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria, and who has advised the Nigerian government on strategic issues of community and the environment. Former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Herman Cohen was also in attendance. 

Thijs Jurgens, Royal Dutch Shell’s senior adviser in government relations for Europe and sub-Saharan Africa, told the panel Nigeria is a country blessed with abundant energy resources. He said it is the world’s 11th largest oil producer and seventh largest holder of natural gas, accounting for 75 percent of the Nigerian government’s revenues.

But, since 2005, production has been significantly cut, Jurgens said, with more than $50 billion lost, much of it revenue to the Nigerian government, through theft, called bunkering, and sabotage by militant groups claiming the region has been environmentally devastated by oil companies without receiving a fair share of revenues.

After negotiating principally with the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), the Nigerian government announced an amnesty late in 2009 that has had some success in getting militants to hand over their arms, but violence continues in the region.

Jonathan, who was in Washington attending the Nuclear Security Summit, told a gathering sponsored by the Atlantic Council that the delta amnesty program consisted of two important phases, disarmament and rehabilitation. “We are progressing” in both areas, he said, with a goal of “retraining and creating opportunities” for ex-militants.

Source: www.allafrica.com

Power Options Limited and Go Solar Limited have been awarded a Sh273.6 million tender to install, test and commission solar panels in schools and health centres that have never had power and which are to be used as test grounds for the eventual use of solar energy across the country.

“This project is specifically for regions that are far off the national power grid” said Mr Patrick Nyoike, the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Energy. Mr Nyoike, however, said the pilot project will not be extended to other facilities in urban centres. “This project is for affirmative action to ensure the arid and semi arid regions are also included in the development agenda,” the PS said in an interview with Business Daily.

The government set aside Sh500 million in the 2009/2010 budget to light up isolated regions such as North Eastern province.

The regions have sunshine through out the year and could be used as a test case to eventually roll out the use of solar power across the country.

“This project is one of the success stories of the rural electrification programmes,” said Mr Nyoike. The project comes barely four months after Prime Minister Raila Odinga appointed a team to fast-track the expansion of the generation and use of clean and renewable sources of energy such as solar, wind and biogas.

Economic recovery

Kenya plans to commission the national use of clean energy by 2012 that will help install an additional power generation capacity of 2,000MW as the country expects demand for electricity to pick up with the economic recovery early next year, putting the current supply levels under serious strain. The task force will investigate and recommend measures to speed up the construction and commissioning of the accelerated green energy programme by June 2012. The UN says Kenya can reduce the cost of energy to manufacturers and domestic consumers if it tapped into solar and wind energy in its vast and dry northern regions.

According to the UN, Kenya has the capacity to generate more than 3,000 MW of electricity if it tapped into wind and solar energy in its vast northern districts. The utilization of clean energy could help inject additional power to the national grid to assuage the fears of the manufacturing sector and potential investors who have grown cold feet in putting their money in Kenya. Manufacturers have blamed the high cost of locally produced goods on the expensive electricity tariffs.

Kenya could avoid irregular electricity supplies if it tapped into clean energy. A power crisis that hit the country between August and October last year affected production and was blamed on inadequate rainfall and failure to implement planned generation projects on schedule.

Domestic consumers

The increased generation of additional power could spur the manufacturing sector which could be left to utilise the current supply installation with the solar generated power left to domestic consumers.

Last year, the Africa Development Bank (ADB) injected Sh32 billion into a private consortium to develop an initial 300MW from wind energy in Turkana district – equal to around 25 per cent Kenya’s current installed energy capacity. This follows the Government’s introduction of new legislation covering electricity generation.

Kenya obtains more than 75 per cent of its power from hydro. The country’s only existing source of renewable energy is the geothermal power, which however has not been exploited to its maximum. For example, while Kenya has geothermal potential to produce 3,000MW of electricity, geothermal sources account for only 11 per cent of the country’s approximate 1150MW existing capacity.

Source: www.businessdailyafrica.com

How do you justify the recent approval by the bank of the loan for South Africa’s energy utility company, Eskom Holdings Limited, Medupi Power Project, which has taken place against the backdrop of intense discussions on climate change and the upcoming Copenhagen Summit on climate change?

Over the last few years, South Africa has taken concrete steps towards realizing these long-term goals by ratifying international protocols on climate change and developing relevant strategies and the relevant regulatory framework, in particular:

South Africa ratified the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in August 1997 and acceded to the Kyoto Protocol in July 2002.

South Africa developed a 2004 National Climate Change Response Strategy, which outlined a broad range of principles and policy measures of mitigation and adaptation to climate change;

South Africa adopted a 2005 White Paper on Renewable Energy, which sets a target of 4% of electricity supply (equivalent to 10,000 GWh) from renewable energy sources by 2013;

South Africa adopted a 2006 National Energy Efficiency Strategy (updated in 2009), which sets ambitious national targets for energy efficiency improvement (12% by the year 2015). A National Energy Efficiency Agency (NEEA) has been established to pursue this target through various energy conservation programs;

In 2008 South Africa completed a major analytic study identifying the priority sectors for carbon mitigation. The Long-Term Mitigation Scenarios (LTMS) is a pioneering effort among developing countries to combine high-quality research with extensive stakeholder consultations. Based on this process South Africa has put forward aggressive LTMS recommending priority climate change mitigation strategies for South Africa;

In 2009, the South African regulator, NERSA, implemented the REFIT program, which sets price for purchase of electricity produced by renewable energy projects such as wind, solar, etc.The government has adopted a mitigation strategy which envisages stabilizing emissions by 2020-2025 followed by a decline in absolute terms by mid-century.

South Africa and the Southern African region exchange electric power through the Southern Africa Power Pool. Today, the region is suffering an unprecedented power crisis. This project is helping to alleviate the energy crisis, using locally available source (coal) and one of the best technologies available (super critical boilers) to minimize CO2 emissions.

Does this project go against the clean energy investment framework adopted by the AfDB a year ago?

In order for African countries to begin shifting to clean energy and a lower carbon development path, they need to significantly scale up investments in both renewable and low-emission fossil-fuel technologies, while strengthening energy efficiency.

In collaboration with the World Bank and IFC, the Bank prepared an Investment Plan (IP) for South Africa to benefit from the Clean Technology Fund (CTF) in order to promote a scaling-up of large scale renewable energy projects such as:

Eskom’s proposed 100 MW-capacity Upington Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) plant, which will be the first-ever commercial scale CSP plant in sub-Saharan Africa.

Developing the first utility-scale wind power plant – Phase I of Eskom’s Western Cape Province Wind Energy Facility consisting of a 100-MW wind farm as well as support to pioneer private sector projects amounting to 100MW new generation capacity.

Supporting municipalities and the private sector in a large-scale programme to deploy solar water heaters (SWH), with a target of achieving 50 percent of the government’s ambitious goal of converting 1 million households from electric to solar water heating over the next five years.

Scaling up energy efficiency investments by catalyzing the expansion of bank lending to the commercial and industrial sectors through lines of credit to commercial banks, contingent financing to foster energy service companies (ESCOs), and financial incentives or risk products to market leaders, such as large industrial customers.

The CTF Investment Plan envisages mobilizing US$ 1.6 billion for development, replication and up-scaling of renewable energy technologies as mentioned above. The Bank will prepare and appraise the projects identified under the Investment Plan in the coming year.

Does the technology used in the project respect the most rigorous environmental standards on carbon energy development?

The Medupi Power plant will deploy super-critical boilers, which will produce 20% less CO2 compared to sub-critical boilers. Moreover, the use of dry cooling towers will reduce the consumption of water by 20-30% per unit of electricity produced.

In addition, Eskom intends to install “Flue Gas Desulphurisation” to reduce emissions of SOX to acceptable levels.

What were the major conclusions of the environmental impact study conducted within the framework of this project?

The project has been assigned Category 1. As required under South Africa’s Department of Environment Affairs (DEA) regulation, Eskom in 2007 carried out comprehensive and independent Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) studies for the Medupi coal power plant and separate EIA studies for the associated facilities, including the Phase I transmission lines from Medupi to Dinaledi and Marang substations and Medupi to Spitskop, Spitskop to Dinaledi. The EIA studies assessed all potential environmental impacts and identified appropriate mitigation measures associated with the proposed project construction and operation. The EIA studies have received “Environmental Authorization” (EA) from DEA, in other words the environmental permits for the power plant and some of the transmission lines for the integration of Medupi into the national grid. Eskom has also received a permit from the former Department of Water Affairs (DWA) on the allocation of water for Medupi plant to be sourced from the Mokolo Dam reservoir, though the integrated water use license application is pending Eskom’s decision on the selection of the final site from the two alternative sites for bottom ash dump, and the need for additional water for use in Flue Gas Desulphurization (FGD) units. Eskom has also developed the Environmental Management Plans (EMPs) for both construction and operation phases which have been approved by the DEA. These EIA studies have been posted on the Bank’s web site.

Is this project an exception or are we going to see the approval of more of such projects by the AfDB?

Africa has a big potential in hydropower which needs to be taped into. Where the hydropower resource doesn’t exist, ADB will be called upon to develop projects similar to Medupi, using clean coal technology. The Bank is also helping its regional member countries to develop clean energy like solar and wind.

Source: www.allafrica.com

La vendedora de vegetales Ramiben Waghri tomó un préstamo para comprar una linterna solar que usa para iluminar su puesto por la noche. La linterna cuesta entre 66 y 112 dólares, aproximadamente su ingreso de una semana.

“Los vegetales lucen mejor bajo esta luz, y es más barata que el keroseno y no huele mal”, dijo Waghri, quien estima que gana unas 300 rupias (6 dólares) más cada noche con su linterna. “Si podemos usar el sol para ahorrar algo de dinero, ¿por qué no?”, agregó.

En India, los proyectos de energía solar, a menudo financiados por instituciones de microcréditos, ayudan al país a reducir sus emisiones de dióxido de carbono y lograr su meta de duplicar la contribución de energía renovable a 6%, o a 25,000 megavatios, en los próximos cuatro años.
Mejor calidad de vida

Las aplicaciones que no requieren electricidad como cocinas y linternas solares, que dan varias horas de luz por las noches tras de ser cargadas bajo durante el día, ayudarán a reducir la dependencia de combustibles fósiles y los niveles de C02 del cuarto mayor emisor del mundo, dijo Pradeep Dadhich, miembro del instituto de investigaciones energéticas TERI.

“Apuntan a personas que de otro modo tienen acceso limitado o nulo a electricidad, y dependen del kerosene, diésel o leña para sus necesidades energéticas”, explicó Dadhich.

“Las aplicaciones no sólo satisfacen estas necesidades, sino que mejoran la calidad de vida y reducen los niveles de carbono”, agregó.

La Asociación de Mujeres Cuentapropistas (SEWA por sus siglas en inglés), es parte del creciente número de instituciones de microcrédito en India dedicadas a proveer fuentes de energía renovable para personas pobres, quienes de otro modo tendrían que esperar horas para comprar kerosene, o recorrer kilómetros para recolectar leña y cocinar.

SKS Microfinance, la mayor institución de micro créditos (MFI, por sus siglas en inglés) de India, ofrece lámparas solares a sus 5 millones de clientes, mientras que la Fundación Electricidad Solar Rural ayuda a financiar lámparas y sistemas de iluminación para pobladores de India, Nepal y Bangladesh.

“Suministrar electricidad es responsabilidad del Gobierno, pero es una tarea inmensa y el gobierno solo no puede hacerlo”, dijo Shirish Garud, coordinador de la Sociedad de Energía Renovable y Eficiencia Energética (REEEP por sus siglas en inglés) del sudeste asiático.

“En muchos casos el usuario final no tiene acceso a servicios financieros y bancarios convencionales, motivo por el cual necesitamos los MFI”, indicó Garud.

El banco Aryavart Gramin ha aprobado préstamos para la instalación de 8,000 sistemas solares domésticos en Uttar Pradesh, el estado más poblado de India y una región clave en la producción de granos.

En África, los micro préstamos están llevando sistemas solares a casas, escuelas e industrias informales en regiones remotas, a donde no llega la red de suministro eléctrico. Las personas pobres usan el dinero que habrían utilizado en keroseno para cancelar sus préstamos.
Millones de lámparas
Cientos de millones de personas en India tienen poco o ningún acceso a la electricidad. No obstante, la demanda de energía en un país que vio su PIB cerca de 9% en los tres años del 2007 al 2008 se ha hecho sentir en la capacidad e infraestructura.

De los 76 millones de casas de India que no tiene acceso a electricidad, 65 millones usa keroseno que emite carbono, según REEP. El keroseno es altamente inflamable y los gases son nocivos. Cada año miles de personas en países del tercer mundo mueren producto de accidentes que involucran cocinas y lámparas de este combustible.

Las naciones del tercer mundo ahora emiten más de la mitad de los gases de efecto invernadero en el mundo y esa proporción está por subir.

En India, se espera que las emisiones de gas invernadero salten de 4,000 millones de toneladas a 7,330 millones de toneladas en el 2031. No hay cifras de las emisiones actuales de gas invernadero de India.

Se espera que sus emisiones per cápita, estimadas en 1.2 toneladas, aumenten a 2.1 toneladas para el 2020, según un estudio reciente financiado por el gobierno.

India agrega unos 10 gigavatios de electricidad al año y es probable que vea un déficit de hasta 21,000 megavatios cuando la expansión de su capacidad no pueda seguir el ritmo a la demanda, dando lugar a más apagones. La energía solar aliviará algo de presión sobre las redes.

En la vecina Bangladesh, las plantas de energía estatales y privadas pueden generar entre 3,700 y 4,300 megavatios de electricidad al día, frente a una demanda de 5,500 megavatios, según la junta de desarrollo energético estatal.

Como sólo 40% de la población del país tiene acceso a electricidad, las instituciones de micro créditos como el Banco Grameen han hecho un gran avance en la expansión del uso de energía solar.

Desde el 2001, en Bangladesh se instalaron 350,000 sistemas solares domésticos y se han distribuido 550,000 linternas solares, llevando energía a unos 4 millones de personas.

“Ahora mismo 2.5 millones de personas se están beneficiando con la energía solar y tenemos un plan para alcanzar los 10 millones de personas para fin del 2012, dijo Dipal Chandra Barua, director general de Grameen Shakti, una filial del Banco Grameen.

Fuente: www.eleconomista.com.mx