Page 11 - AfrElec Week 39

AfrElec RENEWABLES AfrElec

Africa has 59,000 GW of

onshore wind potential

AFRICA AFRICA has the potential to generate almost productivity (as measured by their capacity fac-
180,000 TWh per year of electricity from 59,000 tors) up to 46%, rivalling the most productive
GW of onshore wind farms, 250 times more that onshore wind sites in the world.
the continent’s current power demand. “What is surprising is how distributed the
Research commissioned by the IFC, a mem- wind resource is,” said Sean Whittaker, Principal
ber of the World Bank Group, and carried out by Industry Specialist at IFC.
Everoze, showed that 27 countries in Africa had “By using high-resolution mesoscale wind
enough wind potential on their own to satisfy models and assuming the use of tall, large rotor,
the entire continental electricity demand – esti- modern turbines, we see great potential in coun-
mated at 700 TWh per year. tries not previously considered to be ‘windy’
Algeria has the highest resource with a total places, including Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Botswana,
potential of 7,700 GW, equivalent to over 11 Cameroon and Mozambique.”
times current global installed wind capacity. Wind is one of the fastest-growing, cheapest
Fifteen other countries have technical wind sources of new power generation around the
potentials over 1,000 GW, including Mauritania, world with over 650 GW of installed capacity.
Mali, Egypt, Namibia, South Africa, Ethiopia However, installed wind capacity in Africa
and Kenya. represents less than 1% of this.
The IFC said that developing Africa’s huge The analysis reveals a total wind potential on
onshore wind energy potential could boost its the African continent of over 59,000 GW, equiva-
transition to affordable and reliable clean energy. lent to 90 times the current global installed wind
“This analysis has clearly shown that Africa capacity.
has world-class wind potential and that wind can The report highlighted how much Africa
play an important role in bringing clean, afforda- has been left behind in the global expansion of
ble electricity to millions on the continent,” said onshore wind.
Linda Munyengeterwa, IFC’s Infrastructure Ben Backwell, CEO of the Global Wind
Director for Middle East and Africa. Energy Council (GWEC), said: “This impor-
“Going forward, IFC is committed to working tant report demonstrates that the studies which
with the public and private sector to help realise have been published until now have significantly
Africa’s remarkable, and largely untapped, wind underestimated the opportunity that wind
potential.” energy represents for Africa. There is a clear need
The analysis also finds that over one-third now for governments to enact policies to take
of Africa’s wind potential is in areas with very advantage of the vast resource that the report
strong winds, averaging greater than 8.5 metres identifies and enable large-scale investment in
per second. wind as a key building block for green economic
Seventeen of the countries covered have par- recovery post [coronavirus] COVID-19.”™
ticularly strong wind potential, with average

Week 39 01•October•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P11