scholarly journals The state of renewable energy development in South Africa: An overview

2021 ◽  
Vol 60 (6) ◽  
pp. 5077-5093
Author(s):  
Olusola M. Akinbami ◽  
Samuel R. Oke ◽  
Michael O. Bodunrin
Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (13) ◽  
pp. 3765
Author(s):  
Jarosław Brodny ◽  
Magdalena Tutak ◽  
Peter Bindzár

The global economic development is, to a great extent, dependent on access to large amounts of cheap energy sources. The growing social awareness of ecology and the enormous damage to the Earth’s ecosystem due to the production of energy from conventional sources have forced fundamental changes in the energy sector. Renewable energy is considered to be an opportunity for such changes. The current state of the art allows such changes to be made without restricting economic development. Therefore, activities related to the energy transition are being taken all over the world. The European Union has definitely managed to achieve the most tangible effects in this regard. This article presents the findings of the research aimed at presenting the current state of renewable energy in the European Union and analyzing the changes reported in this sector in the last decade. The research was carried out using a selected set of 11 indicators characterizing renewable energy in individual countries. These indicators were selected on the basis of literature review and own studies of the state of renewable energy and its development prospects. Based on these indicators, changes in the energy structure of individual European Union countries between 2008–2018 were determined. The study is divided into two main stages. The principal components analysis (PCA) was used for the first analysis. In turn, the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) was adopted to assess the level of renewable energy development in the European Union countries. Both these methods and the extended statistical analysis were applied to determine the state of renewable energy development in the European Union countries in the studied period and to divide the Member States into classes with different levels of development. The results of the study showed that the EU countries are characterized by significant differences in the development of RES during the period in question. The unquestionable leaders in this respect are Sweden, Austria, Finland, and Latvia. Based on the findings, it is possible to evaluate the effects of activities related to renewable energy development and to prepare assumptions for future activities. Additionally, both the research and its findings broaden the knowledge of the directions of renewable energy development in individual European Union countries. This is particularly important in the context of changes related to the need to reduce harmful substance emissions and the implementation of the European Green Deal idea.


2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-103
Author(s):  
Andrea A. Ajibade

Renewable energy (RE) development enhances electrification, mitigates climate change and aids energy efficiency. Kenya, South Africa and Ghana, among other states within sub-Saharan Africa, have established legal regimes to integrate renewable energy into their energy mix. Through defined legal strategies for RE deployment, these states have committed to the promotion, development and utilization of RE. Despite the momentum towards renewable energy development across the region, Nigeria’s efforts fall short of establishing effective legal strategies. As Africa’s most populous nation it must do more to make RE part of its energy mix in order to impact electrification rates, mitigate climate change and aid socio-economic conditions. This article appraises the legal strategies for RE development in Kenya, South Africa and Ghana. Against this appraisal, it critically evaluates Nigeria’s legal strategies to promote and develop RE. It recommends legal reforms that are necessary to better integrate RE into Nigeria’s energy mix. The methodological approach of this article is doctrinal and library-based. It includes primary and secondary sources. Primary sources include laws, statutes, legal documents, conventions and statistics. Secondary sources include journal articles, internet sources and newspaper articles. All sources are subject to content analysis. It is expected that the article will be useful to policy and lawmakers across various tiers of government in Nigeria.Keywords: Renewable Energy Development, Electrification, Energy Efficiency, National Strategies.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 3114
Author(s):  
Ephraim Bonah Agyekum ◽  
Ernest Baba Ali ◽  
Nallapaneni Manoj Kumar

Despite the enormous renewable energy (RE) resources available in Ghana, the country has not seen much development and investments in the sector. Therefore, the government has committed to increasing the share of RE in the country’s electricity generation mix to some 10% by 2030. However, this cannot be achieved without the Ghanaian people’s support since the RE sector is capital intensive and requires both public and private sector participation. This study was conducted to evaluate RE’s social acceptance among Ghanaian people using the ordered logit regression model. A total of 999 valid questionnaires out of 1020 distributed questionnaires were considered for the study. The five-point Likert scale was employed to rank their willingness to accept (WTA) RE. From the results, it was observed that there is a general sense of acceptance of renewable energy among Ghanaians. However, the level of acceptance varies from one respondent to another. The study observed that a majority of the respondents (i.e., approximately 45.65%) agree to their WTA renewable energy, while 36.04% strongly agree. The results also indicate that while 6.21% and 0.3% disagree and strongly disagree, 11.81% of the respondents were indifferent regarding their willingness to accept renewable energy development and utilization in Ghana.


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