Future low-carbon electricity in Africa: how much material is needed?

African countries are expected to experience some of the worst climate effects, while trying to provide higher electricity access and increase wellbeing.Concrete, steel, and aluminium pre­sent the largest opportunities for action, given their high mass or embodied emissions projections.Embodied emissions related to material use for electricity plants are evaluated in three scenarios: a refer­ence scenario, and two scenarios related to the Paris Agreement (where renewable energy increases), resulting in higher embodied emissions as renewables are integrated.Pursuing strategies to increase the use of renewables should be done along material efficiency strategies to reach the total low-carbon potential.

Universal access to electricity: actions to avoid locking-in unsustainable technology choices

Traditional rural-electrification planning relies on centralised, fossil-fuelled electricity generation and grid extension. High-interest rates on renewable energy-powered electricity-generation projects, coupled with low oil prices, favour traditional models and put renewable energy-powered technologies at a disadvantage. Nonetheless, over the past decades alternative approaches have emerged, based on renewable energy-powered, decentralised electricity-generation systems, notably mini-grids. This article makes the case for these alternative approaches. It does so by quantifying the magnitude to which regulating the price of diesel – through subsidies and taxes – affects two sets of parameters: the extent and cost of electrification programmes, and the greenhouse-gas emissions associated with the implementation of these programmes. The analysis, based on high-resolution geo-referenced modelling, covers 71 countries in Africa, South Asia and developing East Asia, representing 85 percent of the world’s un-electrified population. The results highlight that, compared to decentralised fossil-fuelled electricity generation, renewable energy-powered mini-grids perform better with regard to achieving two long-standing policy goals: increasing electricity-access rates and reducing greenhouse-gas emissions.

Evaluation of access to electricity and the socioeconomic effects in rural and urban expanses of Nigeria

PurposeRecently, multidimensional aspects of poverty has been increasingly focused on which includes education, economy and health, while access to modern energy such as stable electricity is also one of the possible solution; thus, this article aims to divulge the relation between access to electricity and progression in socioeconomic status in urban and rural areas of Nigeria in an attempt to propose a sustainable framework for access to electricity.Design/methodology/approachDemographic and health survey data are collected using four categories of model of questionnaires. A standard questionnaire was designed to gather information on features of the household's dwelling element and attributes of visitors and usual residents between the 2018 period. Biomarker questionnaire was used to gather biomarker data on men, women and children. Logistic model estimation technique was employed to estimate the socioeconomic factors affecting access to electricity in Nigeria.FindingsThese studies discovered that there are diverse set of factors affecting access to electricity in Nigeria especially in the rural areas. However, respondent residing in rural areas are still largely deprived access to electricity; most importantly, households with no access to electricity are more likely to use self-generating sets as revealed. Additionally, empirical findings indicated that the higher the level of your education and wealth, the higher the likelihood of having access to electricity in Nigeria. These factors included political will to connect the rural areas to the national grid, development of other infrastructures in those deprived areas and others.Practical implicationsThe problem confronting access to electricity in Nigeria has three components. The first is the significance of those deprived access to electricity in the rural areas and the physical resources needed to connect them to the national grid. The second is the political willingness of the government to have equitable distribution of public goods evenly between rural and urban areas especially on electricity access which will go a long way in reducing poverty in Nigeria. The third is lack of robust national development plans and strategy to tackle the problems facing electricity access in Nigeria.Social implicationsAs the rate of socioeconomic status/development increases, access to electricity is anticipated to rise up in Nigeria.Originality/valueThe findings can be used by the policy makers to address problems facing access to electricity in Nigeria.

Achieving Energy Justice in Malawi: From key Challenges to Policy Recommendations

Addressing energy provision and access in Sub-Saharan Africa is a key global challenge. This paper builds a deep understanding of how fair and just energy policies and realties are in this context. It qualitatively assesses the perceptions of stakeholders in Malawi, where electricity access remains amongst the lowest in the region. Insufficient and unreliable systems of grid energy generation and distribution limit access to electricity in both urban and rural settings. Using wood fuel remains high for meeting cooking, heating, and lighting needs. Responding to these dual challenges, of lacking electricity access and ongoing wood fuel use, must be rooted in notions of equity, fairness, and justice. This paper argues that energy justice provides key insights into how best to respond to complex and interconnected issues of energy generation and access in low-income settings. Drawing on interviews with key stakeholders in policy and Malawi on addressing these challenges, this paper also outlines recommendations for policy. Overall, a just response to these energy challenges is possible, but only if it is built on local inclusive governance with fairer and effective systems of investment.

The Viability of Providing 24-Hour Electricity Access to Off-Grid Island Communities in the Philippines

Techno-economic viability assessments of rural electrification projects, especially those that integrate renewable energy technologies, typically look at system design optimization that would yield the most favorable cost and investment scenarios. However, the true viability of these projects relies more importantly on their impact to the rural communities while ensuring positive financial returns to the project developers. This paper aims to expand the viability assessment of electrification projects in off-grid island communities in order to mainly address the apparently opposing needs of the major stakeholders at play by developing a viability assessment framework considering the techno-economic dimensions as well as the socio-economic impacts to the consumers. The analysis follows a two-phase approach, where system design optimization and financial impact calculations are done in the first phase and the socio-economic viability is accomplished in the second phase. Results suggest that high capital investment for renewable energy has a better pay-off when there is higher demand for electricity. On the other hand, consumers also tend to receive higher economic benefit as they consume more electricity. However, the low income of rural consumers strains their capacity to pay, which necessitates their engagement in more economically-productive uses of electricity. The viability assessment framework can be a useful tool for both investors and consumers as this provides important insights which can be translated into impactful interventions that may include government support through improved policy implementation that can positively sustain electricity access in off-grid communities through renewable energy.