“Africa is characterised by enormous length, enormous width, and a large number of various energy sources. For instance, some countries have coal fields and some depend on the energy of water and wind, whereas sunlight is everywhere,” he notes.
Mr. Amadi says that, taking into account the low access to electricity and rapid population growth in the region, the speed, with which power plants are built, will be crucial. In this regard, solar generation has great advantages over other energy sources.
“Speed is key right now, and the energy source that takes the shortest time to deploy is solar. It will reach every corner of the African continent faster than any other energy source. After that, we will need to create a base load for solar energy because solar power can only be generated in the daytime and is still expensive to store with the use of accumulators. This is why we expect the networks to be expanded and the available resources to be developed,” says the head of the Kenyan RES-centric association.
A similar view has been expressed by Mikael Alemu, CEO and co-founder of 10 Green Gigawatt for Ethiopia, in an interview with Global Energy.
“We believe that solar energy is of paramount importance to the continent. We also believe that solar energy has the biggest potential,” he said.
An impetus for the development of solar generation might come from the country’s fast-growing population and accelerating economic development.
“Consider a very simple number: 2.5%. Such is the rate of Ethiopia’s annual population growth. Which means that we need to provide these people with employment, we need good jobs, and we need good businesses for these people. This is the only way for our economy to evolve…hopefully growing 2 to 3 times bigger within the next decade. Electricity is the only means for economic development. It is therefore clear that Africa’s energy sector will grow rapidly, many times over,” he stressed.
