Examining Opportunities and Challenges of Agrivoltaics in Sub-Saharan Africa

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Abstract
Securing access to water, energy, and food (WEF) remains a critical challenge for countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), a situation exacerbated by climate change through the increasing frequency of extreme weather events. Agrivoltaics (AV) are the integration of solar energy production with agriculture and rainwater harvesting, and offer a promising solution to the WEF nexus. However, despite the technology's growing global popularity, it remains underutilized in SSA. This paper, drawing on the authors’ work in a German research project implementing agrivoltaic demonstrators in The Gambia and Mali, explores both the opportunities and challenges of AV systems in the region. Barriers such as technical complexity, socioeconomic inequities, and weak governance frameworks present significant obstacles. We argue that unless regulatory, socioeconomic, social, and technical challenges are adequately addressed, the substantial potential benefits of AV will be diminished. Scalable AV solutions to the WEF nexus will remain difficult to realize without appropriate politico-institutional safeguards.

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