The migration to renewable vitality is gaining momentum however there’s a scarcity of storage services. Photograph: Dwayne Senior/Bloomberg/Getty Photographs)
In Africa, photo voltaic, wind and geothermal tasks are gaining momentum as nations look to scale back their dependence on fossil fuels, decrease carbon emissions and improve folks’s entry to electrical energy.
The rise of renewable vitality in Africa has coincided with a decade of progress globally, with photo voltaic vitality alone experiencing a 30% progress a yr. For photo voltaic, the rising demand for clear electrical energy coupled with as much as 80% discount in the price of photo voltaic PV panels has pushed this progress.
This explains why Africa has skilled accelerated uptake of assorted types of renewable vitality lately. At 100 megawatts, Kenya’s Lake Turkana Wind Energy Undertaking is the most important wind farm in Africa. It will probably present clear vitality to 1,000,000 properties.
In South Africa, photo voltaic PV tasks are increasing quickly. The nation’s renewable vitality programme underneath the Built-in Useful resource Plan (IRP) goals so as to add 17.8 gigawatts by 2030.
Egypt is one other chief on Africa’s renewable vitality entrance. Its Benban Photo voltaic Park, a 1.8GW facility, is without doubt one of the largest on the planet, serving a million properties.
Photo voltaic mini-grids dot rural Nigeria, Uganda and Tanzania, lighting up properties and giving hope to tens of millions of households on a continent the place greater than 600 million folks nonetheless don’t have electrical energy.
However the continent is struggling to accumulate storage services on the tempo of the fast-growing put in technology capability.
Renewable vitality is generated intermittently. As sunshine lessens, wind speeds scale back and discharge (waterflow) adjustments, energy technology decreases. That is the place battery vitality storage programs (Bess) come into play. Storage permits continued consumption even when provide is low or when no vitality is being produced. It additionally helps to fulfill increased calls for.
In nations resembling South Africa, which experiences rolling blackouts, Bess helps to stabilise the grid, stop disruptions and handle energy demand extra effectively.
If Africa is to maintain its progress in renewable vitality and create advantages for its inhabitants, implementing storage options turns into an crucial. Sturdy funding in storage will assist to combine completely different types of vitality into the grid seamlessly, thus selling secure and uninterrupted energy provide.
South Africa’s Kenhardt photo voltaic plant, which includes a 225MW battery storage system, involves thoughts. The plant’s batteries retailer vitality generated throughout the day and launch it when the demand for energy spikes, significantly within the evenings.
The undertaking has one of many largest battery storage programs globally and highlights the potential of Bess to stabilise Africa’s energy programs. Tasks resembling Kenhardt are, nonetheless, uncommon.
The marketplace for large-scale battery storage services remains to be in its infancy. Even with its substantial storage system, South Africa’s renewable sector is much from reaching its potential.
Among the many elements that inhibit widespread implementation of Bess in Africa, the excessive preliminary value tops the listing.
Though costs for lithium-ion batteries have been dropping considerably lately, hitting $139/kWh in 2023 and anticipated to fall additional to $80/kWh by 2030, these upfront prices stay a barrier for a lot of African nations.
Lack of the authorized infrastructure and regulatory frameworks in lots of African nations doesn’t assist the scenario both. To develop Bess tasks, sturdy authorities help is essential. This may occasionally embody enacting beneficial insurance policies and laws in addition to placing up appropriate and robust grid infrastructure to accommodate vitality storage programs.
That is the entrance the place many African nations battle. In many of the nations, the grid infrastructure is both non-existent or insufficient, which makes the mixing of Bess extra difficult.
Moreover, Bess capabilities optimally and successfully with a secure grid. An unstable grid characterised by voltage and frequency fluctuations can injury battery parts and scale back its storage capability.
Low funding is one other hindrance. Whereas some worldwide buyers are serious about African renewable vitality markets, many are hesitant to spend money on storage tasks due to the excessive perceived dangers and prices.
By nature, Bess tasks are long-term commitments and the return on funding takes years. This makes them much less enticing to buyers preferring energy technology tasks the place returns will be realised extra shortly.
There are additionally vital provide chain issues. The worldwide demand for batteries has surged lately and authentic tools producers are struggling to maintain up with the wants.
The majority of the world’s battery storage expertise is being produced in and offered to developed markets within the International North and China.
Sarcastically, Africa is house to a number of uncooked supplies vital for battery manufacturing, specifically lithium, cobalt and nickel. Because the creation of this expertise, the continent has but to totally capitalise on its essential mineral wealth.
The worth-added processing that might energy Africa’s battery manufacturing stays largely outdoors the continent, with China main the business. This limits Africa’s capability to develop its personal storage infrastructure.
To deal with this hole, Africa wants elevated expertise switch, significantly within the fields of battery manufacturing and storage programs. With plentiful reserves of essential minerals like lithium and cobalt, the continent has the potential to grow to be a key participant within the world battery storage market.
African nations should, due to this fact, spend money on native manufacturing capability, together with constructing factories for battery manufacturing and creating the experience wanted to take care of and restore storage programs.
Tasks such because the Golomoti Photo voltaic plant in Malawi, which features a 10MWh battery storage system, are a step in the precise path. However extra efforts are wanted to make sure that Bess tasks will not be simply funded but in addition constructed with native capability in thoughts.
To actually unlock Africa’s renewable vitality potential, worldwide funding is vital. Africa wants concerted efforts from each the private and non-private sectors, the place governments set up clear insurance policies and laws for Bess and create a beneficial enterprise local weather for personal buyers and the worldwide growth companions.
To do that, a shift in focus from merely producing energy to incorporate the complete vitality worth chain, together with storage options, is vital.
After they dedicated to deploying 5GW of vitality storage expertise by 2027 as a part of the Bess Consortium at COP28, Egypt, Ghana and Kenya demonstrated that this may be finished.
Karabo Mokgonyana is a renewable vitality campaigner at Energy Shift Africa.