In Africa, energy crisis is mostly affecting people living in Sub-Saharan region or Non-OECD Asia. According to a report from Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC), more than 95 percent of the people without access to modern energy services are living in these regions. Most of Africa’s energy generating plants rely on imported coal or diesel, putting tremendous pressure on the country’s economy. Renewable energy sources like wind and solar gain relevance in such economies.
The geography of Africa, especially in the coastal areas and eastern highlands is favourable for wind energy generation, but most commercial scale wind power has been developed in the north of Africa. Africa has the potential to emerge as the largest single market for wind power in the foreseeable future, says GWEC.
Current Wind Scenario in Africa
At the end of 2013, over 90 percent of the continent’s total wind installations of just over 1,255 MW were accomplished across five countries – Egypt (550 MW), Morocco (291 MW), Ethiopia (171 MW), Tunisia (104 MW) and Cape Verde  (24 MW), says GWEC.
Major Wind Energy Developments in Africa
Egypt targets to produce 20 percent of its electric power from renewable energy sources by 2020. Of this, wind will contribute 12 percent which translates into over 7 GW of grid connected wind power by 2020. However, the period 2011-13 did not see new wind projects due to the turbulent political conditions.
Moroccan government, under the integrated Moroccan Wind Power Plan, has set a target of installing 2000 MW of wind energy by 2020, a dramatic increase from the existing 291 MW at the end of 2013. French utility GDF Suez has announced plans to develop 300 MW Tarfaya wind farm in Morocco, which would be the largest single wind project in Africa to date.
Ethopia, a highly populated country located in Horn of Africa, plans to increase the wind energy capacity from 2,000 MW to 10,000 MW within the next three to five years. The plan also consists of raising wind power generation to more than 800 MW and geothermal capacity to less than 100 MW. Ethiopia added 90 MW wind power capacity in 2013 for a total installed capacity of 171 MW.
By 2013 end, South Africa had only 10 MW of wind energy in operation. GWEC estimates an additional 1 GW will be added in 2014. South Africa hopes to meet 20 percent of the country’s energy requirement through wind by 2025, which translates into 30,000 MW of installed capacity. By 2030, the country has set a goal of 8.4 GW of wind energy.
Future of Wind Energy in Africa
Under IEA’s New Policies Scenario (NPS), wind power capacity in South Africa will reach 3.9 GW by 2020. This would increase to 11 GW by 2030 on the entire African continent, producing 10 TWh in 2020 and close to 28 TWh in 2030 and creating between 7,900 and 17,600 jobs.
The Global Wind Energy Outlook (GWEO) 2014 scenarios by GWEC are more optimistic. Under the Moderate scenario, wind power would deliver more than four times as much power by 2020 as the IEA’s NPS forecasts, with an installed capacity of 19 GW generating 50 TWh every year. This would then grow by 4,000 – 6,000 MW every year up to 2030, when just over 75 GW of wind power capacity would be installed, producing approximately 198 TWh of clean electricity for Africa.
Wind power investments in Africa will hugely benefit the participating nations. With annual investments to the order of €3.4 billion in 2020 and close to €6 billion in 2030, wind power will become an influential force on African economy. The benefits of wind power are realized in the following ways: clean energy to improve the living conditions of people, generating thousands of high quality jobs across the continent, and saving the foreign reserve that is otherwise spent on fuel imports.
In addition to the above benefits, wind power could also lead to net savings of over 33 million tons of CO2 every year by 2020 and over 136 million tons by 2030, providing economic and environmental co-benefits while increasing energy security at the same time, says GWEC.
Rajani Baburajan