How Solar Can Drive Economic Growth in Africa

3 June 2014

Solar Novus

Increasing solar energy supply in Africa could be the major driver in the continent's goal of achieving 5.2% economic growth in 2014 despite the low investment in the renewable energy technology.

The  International Energy Agency estimates Africa´s solar power installation at 73MW, an equivalent of 0.05% of the region's total power installation or 0.025% of the total renewable power capacity in the continent.
Expanding generation from solar has been touted as one of the solutions to Africa's power crisis, which threatens to halt the march to higher sustainable economic growth.

The region suffers from serious power outages, with the World Bank estimating that on average, the region experiences 10.5 days of outages lasting up to 6.6 hours making the outages frequent, long and erratic.

Businesses with no alternative power supply are said to incur losses of up to 20% while others have been forced to invest in expensive diesel generators to back up their power supply.

Original article by Solar Novus

Category: Energy