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New Energy World
New Energy World embraces the whole energy industry as it connects and converges to address the decarbonisation challenge. It covers progress being made across the industry, from the dynamics under way to reduce emissions in oil and gas, through improvements to the efficiency of energy conversion and use, to cutting-edge initiatives in renewable and low carbon technologies.
Building Africa’s solar power – challenges and big opportunities
18/1/2023
8 min read
An ambitious programme to build Africa’s solar power could underpin sustainable economic development to meet UN SDG 7 goals, write Andreia Nogueira, Paul Cochrane and Nicola Jenvey.
International solar energy providers are finding major business opportunities in Africa as national governments and development agency partners try to foster growth while targeting the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7, which encourages access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy access for all by 2030.
This will not be easy to achieve, despite the continent’s abundant sunlight and the ready availability of solar panels to turn this profuse energy source into electricity.
According to the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) Africa Energy Outlook 2022, in 2021 43% of the population of Africa – around 600mn people – still lacked access to electricity. The IEA noted that Africa is home to 60% of the best solar resources globally, yet only 1% of installed solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity. So, the opportunity is there. It also highlighted that solar PV – already the cheapest source of power in many parts of Africa – will outcompete all sources continent‐wide by 2030.