Renewables losing market share in Africa

"Alarming new data reveals coal, liquid fuels, gas strengthening grip on Africa’s power sector. Investments in renewables too slow to keep pace with demand growth", writes Empower's Terje Osmundsen in a recent blog post in Energi og Klima.

"Despite all the talk of making Africa greener, the share of renewables in Africa’s power production actually dropped in the period from September 2017 to September 2018. These alarming data was presented at the launch of the 2018 «African Energy Data Book», at the occasion of the Africa Investment Exchange in London November 15.

"The growing dependence on fossil fuels in power generation, highlights the urgent need to accelerate investments in renewables across the continent.But experience shows that the conventional strategy of mainly relying on centralized power plants combined with high-voltage transmission to the population and economic centers take far too many years to implement and often become more expensive than originally anticipated. Distributed renewable generation – i.e generation closer to the user and often behind the user’s meter – can bring affordable power to Africa’s users quicker and to a lower cost than the alternatives".

The article in Energy og Klima can be read here. The article was also published in Energy Post.