Page 9 - AfrElec Annual Review 2021

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storage and gas. Its policy also aims to promote terms of utility-scale wind, China has remained
energy efficiency, clean transport and solar water the undisputed leader in wind power, adding
heaters, together with a new system of carbon 56% of the global total of 93 GW, the report said.
taxation and budgets. The US is in second place at 18%, with Brazil
To attract climate investment, the govern- third with 3% and the Netherlands and Germany
ment has put in place auctions to attracts inde- each accounting for 2%. These five contributed
pendent power producers (IPPs), known as the to 80.6% of new additions.
REIPPPP programme. Other finance options Looking ahead, the GWEC urged govern-
include municipal green bonds, recently released ments to take what it terms a “climate emer-
by Cape Town and Johannesburg. gency” approach, which means eliminating red
Mozambique was named as a market to tape and planning delays and expanding grid
watch in the report, with a potential 200 MW infrastructure in a bid to further scale up wind
likely to come online in the medium term. How- power at the pace required.
ever, wind and renewables in general must com- In Africa and the Middle East, an average of
pete for government support with the country’s 3.2 GW of new capacity is predicted to be added
emerging gas and LNG sector. each year between 2021 and 2025, which is pri-
Other risks in Africa were highlighted in marily driven by growth from South Africa,
Ethiopia, where the report warned that currency Egypt and Morocco in Africa and Saudi Arabia
fluctuations and an immature and non-transpar- in the Middle East.
ent IPP bidding process could scare of investors. While wind can serve as the cornerstone
of meeting the Paris Agreement and reducing
Looking ahead emissions, more investment is needed quickly if
While Africa is still in the startling blocks in global targets are to be met.™

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