Strategic low-cost energy investment opportunities and challenges towards achieving universal access (SDG7) in each African nation

Author(s):  
Ioannis Pappis

Abstract Strategic energy planning to achieve universal access and cover the future energy needs in each African nation is essential to lead to effective, sustainable energy decisions to formulate mitigation and adaptation climate change policy measures. Africa can not afford a cost-increasing green energy transition pathway towards achieving SDG7. In this analysis, least-cost power generation investment options using energy systems analysis enhanced with geospatial data for each African nation are identified, considering different levels of electricity consumption per capita (Low, High) and costs of renewables (New Policies, Renewable Deployment scenarios). The power generation capacity needs to increase between 211GW (NPLs) and 302GW (RDHs) during 2021-2030 to achieve SDG7 in Africa, leading to electricity generation to rise between 6,221PJ (NPLs) - 7,527PJ (NPHs) by 2030. Higher electricity consumption levels lead to higher penetration of fossil fuel technologies in the power mix of Africa. To achieve the same electricity demand levels, decreasing renewables' costs can assist in a less carbon-intensive power system, although higher capacity is needed. However, Africa is still hard to achieve its green revolution. Depending on the scenario, grid-connected technologies are estimated to supply approximately 85%-90% of the total electricity generated in Africa in 2030, mini-grid technologies roughly 1%-6%, and stand-alone technologies 8%-11%. Solar off-grid and solar hybrid mini-grid technologies play an essential role in electrifying the current un-electrified settlements in residential areas. Natural gas will be the dominant fossil fuel source by 2030, while the decreasing costs of renewables make solar overtake hydropower. Higher penetration of renewable energy sources in the energy mix creates local jobs and increases cost-efficiency. Approximately 6.9 million (NPLs) to 9.6 million (RDHs) direct jobs can be created in Africa by expanding the power sector during 2020-2030 across the supply chain. Increasing the electricity consumption levels in Africa leads to higher total system costs, but it is estimated to create more jobs that can ensure political and societal stability. Also, the decreasing costs of renewables could further increase the penetration of renewables in the energy mix, leading to a higher number of jobs.

PLoS ONE ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. e0262595
Author(s):  
Megersa Tesfaye Boke ◽  
Semu Ayalew Moges ◽  
Zeleke Agide Dejen

Ethiopia unveiled homegrown economic reform agenda aimed to achieve a lower-middle status by 2030 and sustain its economic growth to achieve medium-middle and higher-middle status by 2040 and 2050 respectively. In this study, we evaluated the optimal renewable energy mix for power generation and associated investment costs for the country to progressively achieve upper-middle-income countries by 2050. Two economic scenarios: business as usual and Ethiopia’s homegrown reform agenda scenario were considered. The study used an Open Source energy Modeling System. The model results suggest: if projected power demand increases as anticipated in the homegrown reform agenda scenario, Ethiopia requires to expand the installed power capacity to 31.22GW, 112.45GW and 334.27GW to cover the current unmet and achieve lower, medium and higher middle-income status by 2030, 2040 and 2050 respectively. The Ethiopian energy mix continues to be dominated by hydropower and starts gradually shifting to solar and wind energy development towards 2050 as a least-cost energy supply option. The results also indicate Ethiopia needs to invest about 70 billion US$ on power plant investments for the period 2021–2030 to achieve the lower-middle-income electricity per capita consumption target by 2030 and staggering cumulative investment in the order of 750 billion US$ from 2031 to 2050 inclusive to achieve upper-middle-income electricity consumption rates by 2050. Ethiopia has enough renewable energy potential to achieve its economic target. Investment and financial sourcing remain a priority challenge. The findings could be useful in supporting decision-making concerning socio-economic development and investment pathways in the country.


Electronics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catalina Rus-Casas ◽  
Gabino Jiménez-Castillo ◽  
Juan Domingo Aguilar-Peña ◽  
Juan Ignacio Fernández-Carrasco ◽  
Francisco José Muñoz-Rodríguez

Currently, the increasing energy consumption around the world and the environmental impact resulting from the use of fossil fuel-based energy have promoted the use of renewable energy sources such as photovoltaic solar energy. The main characteristic of this type of energy is its unpredictability, as it depends on meteorological conditions. In this sense, monitoring the power generation of photovoltaic systems (PVS) in order to analyze their performance is becoming crucial. The purpose of this paper is to design a monitoring system for a residential photovoltaic self-consumption system which employs an Internet of Things (IoT) platform to estimate the photovoltaic power generation according to solar radiation and temperature. The architecture of the developed prototype will be described and the benefits of providing the use of IoT for monitoring will be highlighted, since all data collected by the data acquisition system (DAS) may be stored in the Cloud. The comparison of the results with those of other monitoring systems was very positive, with an uncertainty that complies with the IEC61724 standard.


2014 ◽  
Vol 53 (4II) ◽  
pp. 309-325
Author(s):  
Rafi Amir-Ud-Din

Energy crisis in Pakistan had been brewing long before it became an important national issue with the potential to significantly affect the outcome of general elections of 2013. The looming crisis of depleting non-renewable energy sources combined with a feeble economy has lent a new urgency to the search for an energy mix which is sustainable, economically viable and environmentally least hazardous. Fossil fuels with their known adverse environmental impacts dominate the current energy mix of Pakistan. The renewable energy sources remain underutilised despite being cost effective and less hazardous for the environment. A substantial amount of literature has highlighted various dimensions of existing energy sources in Pakistan with a particular emphasis on the environmental impact, the sustainability and the efficiency of various energy sources [see Asif (2009); Basir, et al. (2013); Bhutto, et al. (2012); Mirza, et al. (2009, 2008, 2003); Muneer and Asif (2007); Sheikh (2010) for example]. This study analyses the environmental impact, economic feasibility and efficiency of various energy sources subject to various economic and noneconomic constraints. Section 2 discusses energy security by reviewing various tapped and untapped energy sources besides analysing current energy mix and its future prospects. Section 3 highlights the interaction of energy use and environment. Section 4 discusses two approaches to assess the feasibility of an energy mix: disaggregated and aggregated. The latter approach makes a multidimensional comparison of all the energy sources discussed in this study. Section 5 consists of discussion and concluding remarks.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aina Maimó-Far ◽  
Alexis Tantet ◽  
Víctor Homar ◽  
Philippe Drobinski

<p>Non-hydroelectric renewable energy sources (RES) are the fastest growing energy generation technologies in terms of new capacity and their penetration is expected to double in the next 20 years. More than half of this growth is expected to come from wind power. However, given the variable nature of RES production linked to climate variability and the need for a constant supply-demand balance, increasing penetration of renewables raises structural, technological and economical issues. In Spain, the correlation of solar and wind climate potential with the seasonal fluctuation of electricity consumption, associated mostly with tourism activity, allows for some ambitious renewable penetration scenarios. This work aims at identifying optimal energy mix scenarios that maximize RES penetration while minimizing distribution risk, using the Markowitz modern portfolio theory as a starting point. We apply the e4clim model to the Spanish electricity system, using reanalysis and electricity data in order to produce scenarios for optimal geographical and technological distribution of RES installed capacity. We conduct a mean-risk analysis and discuss the geographical distribution for the most relevant optimal scenarios. We also provide an interpretation of the optimal RES penetration results in terms of the regional climatic characteristics of Spain. Beyond the large potential of the regional climates of Spain to exploit RES technologies, optimal scenario results reveal interesting regional differences with respect to the current installed capacities, which can be linked to economic and regulatory regional contexts.</p>


2021 ◽  
pp. 103530462110176
Author(s):  
Rohit Azad ◽  
Shouvik Chakraborty

We propose a carbon tax policy for Delhi—the most polluted capital globally—which will fundamentally change the energy mix of Delhi’s economy toward clean, green energy and guarantee universal access to electricity, transport, and food, up to a certain amount. Any carbon mitigation strategy needs to alter our dependence on fossil fuels, requiring a systemic overhaul of its energy mix. Implementing a carbon tax will mitigate emissions and mobilise revenue for our proposed redistributive program: Right to Food, Energy, and Travel (RFET). The policy is designed to advocate for the ‘poor over the rich’ to compensate for the ‘rich hiding behind’ the poor by emitting the majority of carbon and pollutants. Using input–output analysis, we estimate the class-wise distribution of carbon emissions in Delhi. We find that the necessary tax would be US$112.5 per metric ton of carbon dioxide in order for this program to work. The free entitlement of fuel and electricity per household comes out to be 2040 kWh per annum, and there is an annual universal travel pass of US$75 per person for use in public transport and an annual per capita availability of food of US$205. JEL Codes: Q43, Q48, Q52, Q58


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 269-276 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias Günther ◽  
Michael Eichinger

A 100% renewable electricity supply is no insurmountable technical problem anymore after the respective technologies to harvest the energy from multiple renewable energy sources have been developed and have reached a high level of maturity. A problem may rather be suspected to reside on the economic side of an exclusively renewable electricity supply. The present study examines the economic implications of a renewable energy scenario for the Java-Bali grid. Based on given energy supply scenarios, the costs of an electricity supply from renewable energy sources alone are determined. Economic optimum configurations are determined for which the annual system costs and accordingly the power generation costs are minimized. First the system running costs are considered, i.e. the operation and maintenance costs as well as the costs of the continuous renovation of system components, while capital costs are not taken into account. After this the capital costs are taken into consideration, and total system costs and power generation costs are determined. The main result is a specification of economic optimum system configurations. One important result is that a future electricity supply from renewable resources alone is not more expensive than the current power generation in developed countries. Another result is that the integration of special long-term storage into the Java-Bali grid, like for instance methane storages, besides pumped storages and batteries, is not economically favourable if further moderate battery cost reductions are reached.Article History: Received May 18th 2018; Received in revised form August 16th 2018; Accepted October 1st 2018; Available onlineHow to Cite This Article: Günther, M., Eichinger, M., (2018) Cost Optimization for the 100% Renewable Electricity Scenario for the Java-Bali Grid, International Journal of Renewable Energi Development, 7(3), 269-276.https://doi.org/10.14710/ijred.7.3.269-276


Electronics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 1098
Author(s):  
Doron Greenberg ◽  
Michael Byalsky ◽  
Asher Yahalom

The limitedness of the nonrenewable local energy resources in Israel, even in the background of the later gas fields’ findings, continues to force the state to devote various efforts towards ‘green’ energy development. These efforts include installations, both for the solar and for wind energy, thus improving the diversity of energy sources. While the standard discounted cash flow (DCF) method using the net present value (NPV) criterion is extensively adopted to evaluate investments, the standard DCF method is inappropriate for the rapidly changing investment climate and for the managerial flexibility in investment decisions. In recent years, the real options analysis (ROA) technique has been widely applied in many studies for the valuation of renewable energy investment projects. Taking into account the above background, we apply, in this study, the real options analysis approach for the valuation of wind energy turbines and apply it to the analysis of wind energy economic potential in Israel, which is the context of our work. We hypothesize that due to nature of wind energy production uncertainties, the ROA method is better than the alternative. The novelty of this paper includes the following: real world wind statistics of the Merom Golan site in Israel (velocity 3.73 m/s, with a standard deviation of 2.03 m/s), a realistic power generation estimation (power generation of 1205.84 kW with a standard deviation of about 0.5% in annual value which is worth about 1.3 M$ per annum), and an economic model to evaluate the profitability of such a project. We thus discuss the existing challenges of diversifying renewable energy sources in Israel by adding wind installations. Our motivation is to introduce a method which will allow investors and officials to take into account uncertainties when deciding in investing in such wind installations. The outcomes of the paper, which are obtained using the method of Weibull statistics and the Black–Scholes ROA technique, include the result that market price volatility adds to the uncertainties much more than any wind fluctuations, provided that the analysis is integrated over a long enough time.


Author(s):  
Cheikh Sidi Ethmane Kane ◽  
Labouda Ba ◽  
Gildas Tapsoba ◽  
Marie-Christine Record ◽  
Fanta Haidara

For decades, Mauritania's economy has been fueled by thermal power.  As a developing economy, Mauritania's electricity demand has long been relatively low, though it has increased recently due to economic growth, urbanization, and industrial activities. The rapid growth in demand is making the country more dependent on oil and gas-based generation power plants, which a resultant drain on the national economy. However, Mauritania has abundant renewable energy potential. the deployment of renewable energy can be an alternative solution to reduce the dependence on fossil resources. In this paper, we have reviewed the situation of the power generation sector, the potential of renewable energy, the integration of renewable energy in Mauritania's energy mix and the mitigation potential. The installed capacity in 2018 is 415.5 MW. The percentage of thermal power plants is 59.8% and 40.2% of the integrated capacity is provided by renewable energy. In 2018, the total electric power generation was 1958.5 GWh, the contribution of renewable energy was 979.75 GWh. The IPCC 2006 methodology was used to estimate GHG emissions. The results showed that the integration of renewable energy into the country's energy mix reduced emissions by approximately 212.58 Gg CO2eq.


Author(s):  
Jorge Morales Pedraza

Cuba, a small island in the Caribbean Sea with a total land area of 109.884 km2 and a population of around 11.423 million, has no significant proved oil, gas and coal reserves. Also use, in a very limited manner, some of the four main renewable energy sources available in the country for electricity production, generating just 50,1 GW/h or 4,04% of the total electricity consumed in 2015 (20.288 GW/h). In 2016, electricity consumption fell to 15.182 GW/h; this means a reduction of 25% in comparison to 2015. In 2016, the participation of renewable energy sources in the energy mix of the country reached 4,65%. The different renewable energy sources available in the country are hydropower, wind power, solar photovoltaic, and bioenergy. In 2015, out of Cuba’s total 566 MW of renewable energy capacity installed, 83% of the total was in the bioenergy sector. In 2016, the renewable energy capacity installed in the country reached 642 MW. According to the decision adopted by the Cuban government, the participation of renewable energy sources in the energy mix of the country should reach 24% in 2030, an increase of almost 20% compared to the level reported in 2016. Among the different renewable energy sources available in the country, solar energy is one of the main contributors to the national energy system, and also one of the leading supplier of energy to independent users all over the country.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (23) ◽  
pp. 13382
Author(s):  
Muhammad Riaz ◽  
Aamir Hanif ◽  
Haris Masood ◽  
Muhammad Attique Khan ◽  
Kamran Afaq ◽  
...  

A solution to reduce the emission and generation cost of conventional fossil-fuel-based power generators is to integrate renewable energy sources into the electrical power system. This paper outlines an efficient hybrid particle swarm gray wolf optimizer (HPS-GWO)-based optimal power flow solution for a system combining solar photovoltaic (SPV) and wind energy (WE) sources with conventional fuel-based thermal generators (TGs). The output power of SPV and WE sources was forecasted using lognormal and Weibull probability density functions (PDFs), respectively. The two conventional fossil-fuel-based TGs are replaced with WE and SPV sources in the existing IEEE-30 bus system, and total generation cost, emission and power losses are considered the three main objective functions for optimization of the optimal power flow problem in each scenario. A carbon tax is imposed on the emission from fossil-fuel-based TGs, which results in a reduction in the emission from TGs. The results were verified on the modified test system that consists of SPV and WE sources. The simulation results confirm the validity and effectiveness of the suggested model and proposed hybrid optimizer. The results confirm the exploitation and exploration capability of the HPS-GWO algorithm. The results achieved from the modified system demonstrate that the use of SPV and WE sources in combination with fossil-fuel-based TGs reduces the total system generation cost and greenhouse emissions of the entire power system.


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