As part of 37 utility-scale renewable energy projects in South Africa, various PPAs are still outstanding. These will be signed in October, the country’s Minister of Energy has now announced.
During a recent congress, German Development Minister Dr. Gerd Müller announced further support for the growth of renewable energies in Africa. He used the congress as a platform to present his new concept of a green civil energy, which is strongly based on investments by communities and cooperatives.
By far the most populous country of Africa (with 177 million inhabitants in 2014), and consequently the first GDP of the continent, Nigeria is a member of the OPEP and has a large amount of oil resources, which represents the major part of its economy. The rest of the GDP is mainly divided between the agriculture sector and artisanal production. The electrification rate of the country is rather low: in 2012, only 55.6% of the population had access to electricity. The lack of infrastructure affects mainly the rural and poor populations. To overcome the inexistence and the low reliability of the electricity distribution in several areas of the country, the rural populations invest in diesel generators, which are expensive and polluting.
Algeria was the very first country in Africa to apply a Feed-in Tariff scheme for renewable energy. In August 2004, a national program for the promotion of renewable energy was launched: it obliges Sonelgaz, the national public energy operator, to buy energy from renewable sources through a commercial contract. However, this policy failed: it did not lead to any renewable power plant construction.
In order to reach its objectives of developing its electricity generation from renewable resources, the Kenyan Energy Ministry has established in 2008 a Feed-in-Tariff policy, subsidising renewables-based electricity production.
