Photovoltaic Development in Africa

The African continent is vast and rich in various resources and minerals. However, people living on the continent have long suffered from energy shortages. In recent years, with the rapid development of renewable energy around the world, Africa seems to see new hope in solving energy supply. A large number of large-scale or small renewable energy power generation projects are springing up on the ancient African land, bringing more light to the continent.

New ways to address electricity demand

"There is no lack of energy in Africa, it is just that it is not being used properly." African historian and politician CheikhAntaDiop said this about Africa as early as 1985. Now, 30 years later, modern, reliable and clean energy has become a key factor in supporting Africa's development.

For a long time, Africa's energy supply has not been good. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has reported that the power supply situation in many countries in Africa is very poor, and a large number of people, especially rural people, are without access to electricity, and in rural areas south of the Sahara, only 2 to 5 percent of households are connected to the grid. This is a serious constraint on Africa's overall economic development.

In March this year, at the 15th High-level Meeting of African Environment Ministers, Achim Steiner, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Program, said that the development of renewable energy can help solve the problem of electricity supply that has plagued Africa for a long time, thus providing opportunities for Africa to leapfrog development.

The opportunity is also being seen across the continent, with countries betting on renewable power. South Africa is leading the way, proposing to invest $90 billion in renewable energy over the next 20 years, aiming to increase the total use of renewable energy by 40% and double the country's total electricity generation. According to Radio France International, South Africa not only plans to build solar farms with a total installed capacity of 5,000 megawatts, but also intends to vigorously promote the construction of a series of renewable energy power generation projects such as wind energy and biomass energy.

South Africa was followed by a number of North African countries, with Morocco being the most active. Around 2000, Morocco built its first wind farms in the eastern city of Tetouan. Since then, two more wind farms have been built off the country's Atlantic coast. In addition, Morocco is also planning a series of solar power stations in eastern cities, hoping to increase solar power generation to 2,000 megawatts by 2020, accounting for about 18% of Morocco's total power generation.

Algeria has also launched a sustainable energy development plan, investing 300 million euros in cooperation with German companies to build solar panel factories.

West African countries are actively developing their abundant hydro, solar and wind resources, hoping to meet 10 to 20 percent of their electricity needs in the future. Kenya and Rwanda in East Africa are bullish on wind power and biomass. Data show that Kenya's wind power generation is already among the best in the world; Rwanda has a number of biomass power stations, using bagasse and other biological raw materials to generate electricity; Tanzania and Mozambique are also planning wind and solar power projects, respectively.

The mining industry prefers renewable energy

Mining, one of Africa's mainstay industries, is also keen on renewable energy. Renewable energy world website article pointed out that with the development of the economy, Africa's power shortage problem is becoming more and more serious, many utility companies are difficult to ensure stable and reliable power supply, coupled with mines and other often remote geographical location, so renewable energy power supply projects are now popular in Africa's mining industry.

AngloAmericanPlatinum (AngloAmericanPlatinum), the world's largest independent producer of platinum, is one of the mining companies that has a "soft spot" for renewable power. According to the company's chief energy engineer Gerhard van den berg, in South Africa, because the country's main power provider Eskom can not provide enough power for enterprises, Anglo American Platinum has to personally solve the power supply problem, and renewable energy generation is the company's choice. "It's a big challenge for us." Van den Berg said, "The power company can not guarantee our electricity, we have shut down many furnaces, factories, about 65 megawatts of electricity consumption. Renewable energy generation is the right choice for us."

In fact, the mining companies' preference for renewable energy generation was initially due to its remote location, which can only rely on expensive diesel power generation. But today, even those mining projects that are already connected to the big grid prefer renewable energy. Gerhard Winaker, senior project manager at Cronimet Mining Power Solutions, explained that this is mainly due to the current power shortages in many African countries, such as South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia and Mozambique, so renewable energy is particularly popular in the African power market. "Mining companies have to increase the security of their energy supply in order to maintain capacity, and they are now concerned about the sustainability of their energy supply." 'said Winnike.

Also aggressively shifting to renewable power is mining company Acacia. "The quality of power is very important to mining, but right now the biggest challenge we have is TANESCO's very poor quality of power," says Nick Schoeman, general manager of technical services at Tanesco.

TANESCO, as Schooman refers to it, is the electricity supply company wholly owned by the Tanzanian government. According to Schooman, not only is the company currently unable to provide enough electricity to meet mining, but its transmission lines and distribution systems have not been upgraded in time and are too old to support the normal operation of mining companies.

Acacia has begun studying how to meet the roughly 40 megawatts of electricity it needs from its mines from renewable sources, and has even put out a tender to select solar power suppliers to help with the problem, Schoeman said.

Similar to Acacia Mining Co., Shanta Mining Co. The company, which consumes 24,000 megawatt-hours of electricity per year, has built a small pilot solar PV plant on its own to test the feasibility of building a large-scale hybrid power plant. Project director Ian Fielding revealed that Shanta Mining is also exploring the feasibility of building hydropower projects due to the proximity of its mines to rivers.

Ian Curry, managing director of BR Energy, pointed out that the lack of electricity supply is one of the main reasons why many mining companies in Africa are opting for renewable energy generation. In addition, the decline in the price of renewable energy such as solar and wind energy has also attracted many users from the mining industry. Anglo American Platinum's van den Berg is confident: "Renewable power is getting cheaper. We believe that by the time our own solar power projects are up and running, cost should not be an issue."

Industrial development has a long way to go

But it's easier said than done. Although all walks of life in Africa love renewable energy power, but the development of the industry in Africa is still facing many difficulties. One of them is a severe lack of infrastructure.

Solarbuzz analysts pointed out that many African countries have a relatively limited level of economic development, so the construction of infrastructure such as power grids is seriously insufficient, and countries with better renewable energy power development often need to build good power grids and related infrastructure. In Africa, only countries with relatively good economies, such as South Africa, have relatively sound infrastructure, set renewable energy targets, and have relatively mature market mechanisms. In relatively remote and backward areas, such as rural areas where more than 60% of Africa's population is concentrated, the construction of power grids is very backward, although the potential for renewable energy development is huge, it still needs a lot of capital and technical support.

In addition, there are many other risks in many sub-Saharan countries, such as political, regulatory and business risks. At the same time, there are structural flaws in the energy markets of many African countries, which have become obstacles that must be overcome for the development of renewable energy in Africa.

In order to solve the above problems, African countries are also taking active and effective measures to encourage investment in the field of renewable energy. It is understood that a number of countries have developed formal renewable energy policies, or long-term goals for renewable energy generation. In addition, many countries provide financial subsidies to companies investing in renewable energy to help them cope with the initial financing problems they may face.

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