星期二, 24 12 月, 2024
Home PV News Africa Private firms are driving a revolution in solar power in Africa

Private firms are driving a revolution in solar power in Africa

African poverty is partly a consequence of energy poverty. In every other continent the vast majority of people have access to electricity. In Africa 600m people, 43% of the total, cannot readily light their homes or charge their phones. And those who nominally have grid electricity find it as reliable as a Scottish summer. More than three-quarters of African firms experience outages; two-fifths say electricity is the main constraint on their business. If other sub-Saharan African countries had enjoyed power as reliable as South Africa’s from 1995 to 2007, then the continent’s rate of real gdp growth per person would have been two percentage points higher, more than doubling the actual rate, according to one academic paper. Since then South Africa has also had erratic electricity. So-called “load-shedding” is probably the main reason why the economy has shrunk in four of the past eight quarters.

Solar power is increasingly seen as the solution. Last year Africa installed a record amount of photovoltaic (pv) capacity (though this still made up just 1% of the total added worldwide), notes the African Solar Industry Association (afsia), a trade group. Globally most solar pv is built by utilities, but in Africa 65% of new capacity over the past two years has come from large firms contracting directly with developers. These deals are part of a decentralised revolution that could be of huge benefit to African economies.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

- Advertisment -

Most Popular

Liu Zhuo, Sales Manager of TBEA, delivered a speech titled “Green Energy Makes Life Better” at COP16

On the afternoon of December 9, Liu Zhuo, Sales Manager for the Middle East Region at TBEA, delivered a speech titled "Green Energy Makes...

Side Event Themed “Solar empowers land and People from scarcity to prosperity:Integrated Solutions for water, food and ecosystems” took place at COP16

The side event of the 16th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) (COP16) "Solar empowers land and People from...

COP16 China Pavilion Side Event Series Report: Wang Weiying of China Renewable Energy Engineering Institute Proposed Coordinated Development of Renewable Energy and Ecology in...

The China Pavilion held a side event with the theme of "Planning and Ecological Design of Solar PV Power Stations in Desert Areas" on the...

Gao Sheng of Gaoming Technology said Solar greenhouses promote the development of agriculture in desertified area at COP16

The 16th Session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) (COP16) "Off-grid Solar Energy Empowers...