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Solar power in Africa is set to surge: Report
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IANS | 29 Oct, 2020
Africa has immense potential for photovoltaics which has barely been
utilized up until now. But a pioneering spirit is spreading across the
continent, with many countries paving the way for ambitious photovoltaic
projects.
This is the conclusion of the Intersolar Solarize
Africa Market Report 2020, prepared by the Becquerel Institute and the
German Solar Association (BSW-Solar) with support from Intersolar
Europe, the world's leading exhibition for the solar industry.
The report analyzes the market conditions in 16 African countries and presents multiple potential scenarios for the future.
It
was first introduced to the public at the Global Solar Council Virtual
Forum, which took place on October 27-28 and is now available for free
download.
Electrification and renewable energies are right at the
top of the political agenda in many African countries. And yet, the
actual rates of installation in the past year remained low.
With
around 6.6 gigawatts (GW), the continent is only home to around one per
cent of the photovoltaic capacity installed worldwide as of the end of
2019.
While the use of photovoltaic technology continues to rise
globally, almost no new solar systems are being set up in the sunniest
regions of the earth.
The Intersolar Solarize Africa Market
Report 2020 takes a closer look and presents an analysis of the market
in select African countries, for the first time, including Senegal,
Mali, Uganda, Madagascar, Kenya and Tunisia.
The report
investigates the various phases of the photovoltaics markets for 16
African countries as well as their individual regulatory conditions and
potential for photovoltaic installations.
It also issues a clear call to utilize the potential that already exists.
Closer observation shows that there is plenty happening on the continent.
Many
countries have projects in the pipeline, some on a significant scale,
and the underlying political conditions are improving all the time.
For
instance, Algeria is planning to install photovoltaic systems with a
combined capacity of 4 GW by 2024, while the end of 2019 marked the
completion of Egypt's Benban Solar Park.
With a total installed
capacity of 1.5 GW and six million photovoltaic panels, Benban is the
largest solar park in Africa and amongst the biggest in the world. And
Egypt is planning to install another 3.5 GW of solar energy capacity by
2027.
Kenya had plans to set up commercial photovoltaic
installations with a total capacity of 500 megawatts (MW) as of 2019 and
contracts were recently finalized to build a solar park of the same
size in Mali.
"Africa is on the threshold of a major
transformation, which can best be described as a kind of wave that just
keeps swelling. We are excited to see what will come next," says David
Wedepohl, CEO of the German Solar Association (BSW-Solar).
The report presents four potential scenarios for the future of photovoltaics in Africa.
The
"policy-driven" and "business as usual" scenarios are based on the
various countries' current expansion goals and assume cumulative
photovoltaic capacity of approximately 70 GW by 2030.
More
probable is the "solarize Africa accelerated" scenario, which presumes
that photovoltaics in Africa will develop broadly in the same way as in
other parts of the world, giving 170 GW of installed capacity by 2030.
The
central assumption of the fourth scenario -- the "solarize Africa
paradigm shift" that builds on the current atmosphere on the continent
-- is that the African markets are in some respects skipping over the
fossil fuel age altogether.
It combines the installed
photovoltaic capacity with the targets laid out in the Paris Agreement.
With a cumulative capacity of 600 GW by 2030, this scenario envisions
Africa as a very important region in the future global photovoltaic
market.
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