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Clean energy: The potential to leapfrog

Africa has an opportunity to leapfrog to modern, energy efficient technologies, since the continent has a rich portfolio of clean energy assets, including about 1,100 gigawatts of solar capacity, more than enough to meet total energy demand.

Modern renewable technology options (hydropower, wind energy, concentrating solar power, geothermal sources, solar photovoltaics) account for 5% of Africa’s total final energy consumption. This could be increased to 22% in 2030.

  • Kenya’s Rift Valley region has a potential of producing 10,000 megawatts of geothermal energy, with the country tapping only 10% of it.
  • Noor 1, Morocco’s solar power plant at the town of Ouarzazate, which now provides 160 megawatts (MW) of the ultimate 580MW capacity, helping the country to save hundreds of thousands of tonnes of carbon emissions per year.

The transformation to clean energy would require on average US $70 billion per year of investment between 2015 and 2030. Within that total, about US $45 billion would be for generation capacity and about US $25 billion would be for transmission and distribution infrastructure.

Read more about climate change disruptions in our 2017 Forum Report.