Sub-Saharan Africa’s Decentralized Renewable Energy Revolution
Bringing electricity to the 6
00 million in Africa who currently live without it is arguably the single most important humanitarian task before us. That’s because electrical power means better education, which in turn brings productivity and, most important, family planning. If you want to alleviate suffering, it’s a good idea to manufacture less of it in the first place.
But what’s the best way to make this happen? The fossil fuel industry licks its chops when it looks at developing countries and starts to contemplate the additional demand that will come online. Europeans have been exploiting Africa for hundreds of years; what’s the problem with constructing coal-fired power plants all over the continent and turning it into an environmental hell-hole, like India and China?
There is, however, an opportunity here, one that would leapfrog the centralized, fossil/nuclear energy paradigm that’s been with us for the last 100 years or so. It exists in the form of microgrids, isolated islands of power generation, distribution, and consumption that can be built quickly, and, best of all, on an ad hoc basis, tapping into the local resources that are most abundant and inexpensive.
I’m happy to report that there has been a great deal of discussion on the subject recently, as well as movement in this direction. Those interested can download this white paper: Sub-Saharan Africa’s Decentralised Renewable Energy Revolution.
