Africa Clean Energy Corridor: Renewable Energy Zoning Methodology (Southern Africa Technical Meeting

Renewable energy zoning is one of the pillars of the Africa Clean Energy Corridor (ACEC) initiative, which envisages massive renewable-energy scale up in a swathe of countries throughout Eastern and Southern Africa. On 19 February in Johannesburg, South Africa, electricity-industry stakeholders, mainly from countries in the Southern African Power Pool, attended a technical presentation on the methodology being developed by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) for a zoning exercise that will help to lay the foundation for the corridor. This followed a similar meeting on 20 January in Abu Dhabi, for countries of the Eastern Africa Power Pool.

Zoning involves identifying high-potential renewable energy resource areas, minimising environmental impact, enabling appropriate development of renewable-based electrical generation plants, and planning the required transmission systems. IRENA aims to build the capacity of national and local institutions in order to enable participating countries to move forward on all aspects of the ACEC initiative.

Click to download the workshop agenda, list of participants an informational hand-out from the event.