Africa has huge renewable energy potential to cover the
energy needs of the continent as it has six of the world’s sunniest countries
on earth in its continent, the technology exists and the human resources are
also in abundance but cannot tap it due to its cost. With the notable exception
of South Africa, Morocco and a few others, progress in scaling up solar energy
in Africa has been disappointingly slow.
The Norwegian Ambassador to Ghana, Hege Hertzberg said
“Africa must exploit other sources of energy in order to drive its industrial
expansion. Solar is the solution to so many challenges. The raw material is
here, and it will last longer than oil and gas”.
According to IT power (1987), Government and ministries in
Africa suffer from a shortage of qualified renewable energy personnel for
example in Kenya, there is lack of general expertise in all aspects of wind
pumps in the relevant ministries and NGO’s. In Zambia, only one engineer was
responsible for coordinating all renewable energy activities of the government
reported by Sampa and Sichone (1995).
Renewable energy can directly contribute to poverty
alleviation by providing the energy needed for business and employment. It can
also indirectly contribute to alleviating poverty by providing energy for
cooking, space heating and lighting.
No comments:
Post a Comment