Solar energy from Africa: The supposed solar paradise

2023-05-28 14:42:25

Great potential: apart from here in South Africa, little is happening in the expansion of solar energy in Africa.
Bild: Picture Alliance

The sun shines tirelessly over Africa, but photovoltaics is making slow progress. Critics blame the World Bank. Right?

FThere is no continent better suited to solar energy than Africa – at least on the concept paper. In large parts, the sun shines three times as much as in Germany. The nature of solar energy, which consumes a lot of land per kilowatt hour of electricity produced, is negligible in a continent with large areas of wasteland. Solar energy could in many parts replace old diesel engines with their harmful exhaust gases and greenhouse emissions and supply the around 600 million people in sub-Saharan Africa who have previously managed without electricity.

The population forecast even catapults future demand into a new dimension. By 2050, the continent’s population will double to 2.5 billion people, all of whom want to use electricity. One argument in favor of solar power is that the cost of photovoltaic modules fell from 8 dollars per watt to 20 cents between 1990 and 2020, as calculated by the International Energy Agency.