International Renewable Energy Agency2024-03-052024-03-052015https://www.irena.org/-/media/Files/IRENA/Agency/Publication/2015/IRENA_Africa_2030_REmap_2015_low-res.pdfhttps://lhg.cput.ac.za//handle/123456789/234Africa’s economy is growing at unprecedented speed. One of the core challenges as African countries continue to grow and develop is energy: meeting rising demand for power, transport and other uses in a way that is economically sustainable and safeguards livelihoods. Economic growth, changing lifestyles and the need for reliable modern energy access is expected to require energy supply to be at least doubled by 2030. For electricity it might even have to triple. Africa is richly endowed with renewable energy sources, and the time is right for sound planning to ensure the right energy mix. Decisions made today will shape the continent’s energy use of decades to come. The world is increasingly embracing modern renewable energy technologies. For many years they have been supported because of environmental and energy security concerns but in a rising number of situations they are now seen as the most economic option. The use of modern renewables is growing in Africa, and fostering this growth is imperative. African countries are in a unique position: they have the potential to leapfrog the traditional centralised-utility model for energy provision. Africa 2030 is part of IRENA’s global REmap 2030 analysis, which outlines a roadmap to double the share of renewables in the world’s energy mix within the next 15 years. It is based on a country-by-country assessment of energy supply, demand, renewable-energy potential, and practical technology choices for households, industry, transport and the power sector. The results are shown for five African regions. Africa 2030 analysis identified modern renewable technology options across sectors, across countries, collectively contributing to meet 22% of Africa’s total final energy consumption (TFEC) by 2030, which is more than a four-fold increase from 5% in 2013. Four key modern renewable energy technologies with highest deployment potentials for Africa are modern biomass for cooking; hydropower; wind; and solar power. The power sector presents significant opportunity to be transformed through the increased deployment of renewable energy technologies. The share of renewables in the generation mix could grow to 50% by 2030 if the REmap Options in this report are implemented. Hydropower and wind capacity could reach 100 GW capacity each, followed by a solar capacity of over 90 GW. For the power sector this would be an overall tenfold renewable energy capacity increase from 2013 levels. It would result in a reduction of 310 megatonnes of carbon dioxide (Mt CO2) in emissions by 2030 when compared to the baseline scenario. In all regions of Africa except the North, hydropower will continue to play an important role. North, Eastern and Southern Africa can all derive renewable power from other sources, such as wind energy, while concentrating solar power (CSP) will matter specifically in North Africa. Additional renewable power capacity is expected from geothermal sources in East Africa, while solar photovoltaics (PV) will be important in the North and Southern regions.enRenewable energy sourcesEnergy developmentPower resourcesTechnical Report