This policy paper, presented by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) in collaboration with the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC), investigates indicators used to evaluate renewable energy deployment policies. Focusing on effectiveness, efficiency, equity and institutional feasibility, it analyzes the literature associated with these four key success criteria in depth, with a specific focus on lower income countries.

With the energy systems of many African countries dominated by fossil-fuel sources that are vulnerable to global price volatility, regional and intra-continental power systems with high shares of renewable energy can provide least-cost option to support continued economic growth and address the continent’s acute energy access problem. Unlocking Africa’s huge renewable energy potential could help to take many people out of poverty, while ensuring the uptake of sustainable technologies for the continent’s long-term development.

The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) has conducted quantitative assessments of the prospects for renewable energy deployment in Africa’s five regional power pools. This synthesis report summaries the findings of those five regional power studies, adding a consolidated outlook for the continent. The report also explains the energy-modelling approach employed and suggests the way forward for promoting renewable energy in Africa.

This report examines various scenarios for accelerated renewable energy uptake, based on a modelling tool developed by IRENA and tested with assistance from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

This report evaluates Thailand’s options for power generation, transport development, thermal and bioenergy use, and identifies the key challenges in scaling up renewables.

The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) presents two reports demonstrating its ground-breaking renewable energy resource-assessment tool, concentrating on the region of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS):

East and Southern African countries possess vast potential for renewable energy development. This report assesses the prospects for the power sector in the countries of the ACEC through 2040.

This report highlights the findings from AVRIL (“Addressing Variable Renewable Energy in Long-term Energy Planning”), a project by IRENA that has identified the best practices in long-term planning and modelling to represent high shares of VRE. 

The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and Sweden’s Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) have examined the potential for renewable power generation based on resource availability all over Africa.

This white paper, developed by the IRENA Coalition for Action, explores the role of energy utilities in the energy transition and outlines the achievements and implementation strategies of national, regional and local utilities switching to 100% renewable energy. The paper also includes an updated global mapping of national and sub-national 100% renewable energy targets.

This REmap study, prepared in co-operation with the European Commission,  identifies cost-effective renewable energy options for all EU Member States, spanning a wide range of sectors and technologies.

Low-cost renewable energy, especially from solar photovoltaic (PV) installations, has become an increasingly important part of West Africa’s electricity supply. This report outlines three broad scenarios for the growth of renewables in the region’s power systems, particularly in relation to key national and regional targets.

Scenario modelling has become an essential tool to lay the groundwork for clean, reliable, sustainable future energy systems.

IRENA’s new spatiotemporal data atlas, AfREP-Hydro, covers all existing and several hundred committed, planned and potential future hydropower plants across Africa.

This report provides a comparative analysis of 24 LTES and 36 scenario-based LT-LEDS from a total of 45 countries and concludes by highlighting the advantage of basing LT-LEDS on scenarios.

This report summarises the presentations and discussions held at the webinar series entitled: Long-Term Energy Scenarios (LTES) for Developing National Energy Transition Plans in Africa.

This report shows the importance of regional coordination in long-term planning, by showcasing collective opportunities for North African countries to diversify their electricity generation mixes and reduce their reliance on fossil fuel resources by 2040.

This report examines Paraguay’s energy institutions and their governance, long-term energy planning practices, and the socio-economic benefits of promoting renewable and low-carbon technologies in the end-use sectors.

The Global Atlas for Renewable Energy (Global Atlas) aims to close the gap between countries with access to the datasets, expertise and financial support to evaluate their renewable energy potential, and those lacking such elements. As of January 2015, a total of 67 countries and more than 50 institutes and partners were contributing to the initiative, which is coordinated by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).

A collaborative campaign, launched at the 9th Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM) in May 2018 and co-ordinated by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), calls for wider adoption and improved use of model-based LTES. This brochure highlights findings from the first-year of the LTES campaign.

The municipal authorities for Zhangjiakou City, in co-operation with the China National Renewable Energy Centre (CNREC) and IRENA, have adopted an ambitious 30-year roadmap to phase out coal-fired power generation and scale up solar and wind power instead.

This report outlines a planning approach to boost flexibility, specifically to accommodate the largest possible shares of variable renewable (solar and wind) energy sources. 

A FlexTool study on Thailand's power system suggests cost-efficient investment options and provides a sensitivity analysis to find ways to reach high shares of renewables.   

The report outlines recommendations to help Tunisia achieve its 30% renewables goal while boosting growth and development.

This report synthesises experts’ views on how to improve scenario comparison studies to gain insights for the clean energy transition and maps out the motivation, focus and methods of such studies.