Paradox of Africa’s Renewable Energy Potentials and Quest towards Powering Africa

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Abstract
Renewable energy sources such as solar and wind have become mainstream sources of electricity generation in recent years, largely deployed globally towards energy sustainability and reduction of carbon emission. In Africa however, it is paradoxical that despite the vast potentials in annual solar radiation and wind power compared to other developing nations, the continent’s overall energy generation from these are still at meagre level, insufficient to power the continent. Although various challenges and risks could contribute to this, it is essential that to power the continent, the renewable sources need to be unlocked to their maximum potentials while avoiding restrictions to stand-alone systems which have limited applications. In this paper, an overview of wind and solar energy potentials in Africa is presented. Towards more utilization of these, more investments in and development of utility-scale and hybrid renewable energy system are essential while this should go pari-passu development of utility-scale energy storage systems among other factors.

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