Review of Renewable Energy Zones in SAPP and Initiation of Project Sites Analysis

Windhoek, Namibia

This two-day workshop, held from 24 – 25 April 2017, was organised jointly by IRENA and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (SACREEE) which brought together senior officials of the Ministries, utilities, regulatory bodies and research centres from the Southern African Power Pool region. The workshop helped to identify updates to the solar and wind zones under the Africa Clean Energy Corridor and incorporate new developments on the ground. Furthermore, the workshop presented information on earmarked project sites whose financial viability will be assessed in order to guide renewable investments.

In 2015, the Renewable Energy Resource Assessment and Zoning study for the Africa Clean Energy Corridor (ACEC), identified, valued and prioritized high-quality and cost-effective large-scale wind, solar PV, and concentrated solar power (CSP) zones for grid integration. This identification was based on techno-economic criteria, generation profiles, and socio-environmental considerations in 21 countries of the Eastern Africa Power Pool (EAPP) and the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP). The results of the zoning can be found on IRENA’s Global Atlas as well as on mapre.lbl.gov.

ACEC is an initiative led by IRENA that aims to accelerate the expansion of renewable electricity production, taking advantage of the continent’s enormous untapped potential and helping to sustain future growth through renewable power development zoning, planning processes, enabling mechanisms, capacity building and public information.

The zoning work is being reviewed and updated in order to account for latest developments on the ground since the finalisation of the study. It is being deepened at national levels, and used in IRENA planning models to allow a more accurate assessment of renewable energy deployment potential within each country. Working with key stakeholders, IRENA is translating results of this work into projects to be considered in the regional and continental planning processes and possible development.

Also based on the zoning outcomes, IRENA, together with national stakeholders plan to assess the financial viability and suitability of specific sites in order to guide renewable investments. Moreover this assessment will bring some of the zones, and particularly those sites which have been earmarked for development, closer to having investment grade data. The site assessment would enable the local authorities and project developers to, amongst other outcomes, have a clearer understanding of the economic feasibility and investment needed to develop the sites, the return on investment that would be generated, how tariffs could be set, etc.

The above activities planned under the ACEC, aim to support achieving at least 10 GW of new and additional renewable energy generation capacity by 2020, and mobilize the African potential to generate at least 300 GW by 2030 as set out under the Africa Renewable Energy Initiative (AREI).

Workshop Agenda

Workshop Participants List

SADC Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (SACREEE) — Kudakwashe Ndhlukula, Executive Director of SACREEE

Clean Energy Corridors in Africa — Safiatou Alzouma Nouhou, Programme Officer for Sub-Saharan Africa, IRENA

Renewable Energy Zoning under the Africa Clean Energy Corridor (ACEC) — Tijana Radojicic, Associate Programme Officer for Sub-Saharan Africa, IRENA

Renewable Energy Zoning Maps:

Presentations

Renewable Energy Planning – Africa Power Sector — Asami Miketa, Programme Officer for Energy Planning, IRENA

IRENA Global Atlas for Renewable Energy (part 1)

IRENA Global Atlas for Renewable Energy (part 2)

IRENA Global Atlas Bioenergy Simulator

IRENA Global Atlas Wind Energy Simulator

Suitability Analyses for Solar and Wind Projects

Site Appraisal Assessment — Nicolas Fichaux, Programme Officer for Resource Assessment, IRENA

Africa Renewable Energy Initiative (AREI) — Youba Sokona, Head of Interim Delivery Unit, AREI

Meeting growing power demands through Southern African regional integration —Johnson Maviya, Southern African Power Pool (SAPP)

For more information, please contact: Tijana Radojicic (TRadojicic@irena.org)