Sustainable Energy Solutions for Africa

Despite being rich in natural resources [including a vast amount of renewable solar energy] Africa remains solidly at the bottom among the world’s continents in terms of human well-being and development, it’s a situation that most people called the “resource curse.”

The idea behind this concept of “resource curse” is that African regions with lots of natural resources, especially non-renewable, tend to have economies dominated by just a few industrial sectors, causing the rest to remain weak, underdeveloped or inexistent. This over-reliance on a few key resources also makes country vulnerable to corruption, government mismanagement and wild swings in global commodity prices.

Africa has certainly all those things in abundance, but the continent is also undergoing dramatic change, with some countries seeing rapid economic growth and accelerating urbanization, while underdeveloped infrastructure [both in cities and in rural areas] remains an on-going problem.

Today, at a regional level, the number of people without access to electricity in sub‐Saharan Africa increases by 10% every year, with a projection from 590 million in 2010 to 645 million in 2030, with the steadily rising price of electricity affecting both individuals and businesses alike in every African country, alternative energy can be one of the solutions. For example, micro-hydropower could help bring electricity to remote areas, as well as Solar Energy.

This is especially critical in Africa, where population growth will continue to overwhelm energy development efforts.

For most development study agency, a shift to renewable forms of energy has been identified as a long-term solution to the looming problems of energy shortages and the obvious damage to the environment. Concentrated solar power is one of the few (if not the only) renewable energy form that offers both immediate and long term solution to Africa’s energy needs.

Sustainable power in Africa can be based to a great extent on utility-scale renewable energy generation from the sun, as well as energies from wind and micro scale water turbines. A well balanced mix of renewable energy sources with fossil fuel backup can provide affordable power capacity on demand throughout Africa.

We tend to forget sometime that Africa has an enormous amount of sun energy, falling as sunshine on African deserts, arid Sahel region and savannah grassland, begging to be harnessed by anyone who has an appreciation for sustainable, clean, affordable and renewable electricity.

Let's the sun shine...