Elsevier

Energy Policy

Volume 38, Issue 5, May 2010, Pages 2291-2301
Energy Policy

Energy access in Africa: Challenges ahead

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2009.12.016Get rights and content

Abstract

This paper presents a review of the current situation and projections for energy access in Africa. The paper also presents several sets of ambitious energy access targets as agreed by the regional groupings within the region. The paper argues that achieving between 50% and 100% access to modern energy services by 2030 in Africa will require more effective mobilization and use of both domestic and external funding, and the development and implementation of innovative policy frameworks. The paper suggests that greater emphasis will need to be placed on productive uses of energy and energy for income generation in order to break the vicious circle of low incomes leading to poor access to modern energy services, which in turn puts severe limitations on the ability to generate higher incomes. The paper further suggests that if anything near the ambitious targets set by African organisations are to be achieved then it will be advisable to tap into the full menu of energy resource and technology options, and there will be the need for significant increases in the numbers of various actors involved together with more effective institutions in the energy sector.

Introduction

Energy is one of the essential inputs for socio-economic development (Johansson and Goldemberg, 2002; Davidson and Sokona, 2002). This fact plus the strong links between energy and the millennium development goals (MDGs) make it even more important to address the challenges and prospects for energy service provision in sub-Saharan Africa (Karekezi, 2002a; Karekezi and Majoro, 2002; Modi, 2004; Modi et al., 2005; Porcaro and Takada, 2004). That the provision of energy services is a necessary but not sufficient condition for sub-Saharan Africa to pull itself out of poverty is not in doubt. That energy services should be seen as one of the means rather than the end is also not in doubt. What is in doubt is how sub-Saharan Africa can go about meeting the energy needs of all its peoples and whether or not the governments and people of the region will be able to mobilise the resources needed to make this happen.

The New Partnership for Africa’s Development set the ball rolling by putting forward a strategic development vision with clear objectives for meeting the energy needs of the region (NEPAD, 2001). The Forum of Energy Ministers of Africa (FEMA) and several sub-regional economic communities, notably the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the East African Community (EAC) and the Economic Community of Central African States (CEMAC) followed suit to develop energy strategies towards achieving the MDGs and realising the NEPAD objectives. The international development community has also been active in highlighting the energy issues of sub-Saharan Africa and proposing programmes to address the energy for development needs. To mention a few, the Global Network on Energy for Sustainable Development (GNESD) has undertaken major pieces of analytical work on energy access and renewable energy for poverty reduction (GNESD, 2005, GNESD, 2006) and the World Bank has harnessed insights from a wide range of development partners to put forward an Action Plan for Energy Access in Africa (APEA) based on the Investment Framework for Clean Energy and Development (World Bank, 2006).

The term “energy access” has been used to mean “ability to use energy”, namely electricity, LPG, charcoal or some other form of energy. In a similar vein “access to energy services” has meant “the ability to use energy services” and Modi et al. (2005) have described energy services as “the services that energy and energy appliances provide … lighting, heating for cooking and space heating, power for transport, water pumping, grinding, and numerous other services that fuels, electricity, and mechanical power make possible.”

IEA (2006) states that there is no single internationally accepted definition for electricity access. Quite often there is a differentiation between household access where one is able to use electricity in the home and access to the grid, sometimes described in terms of the “penetration rate”, which simply refers to the proportion of a geographical area covered by the grid, regardless of how many households are connected. Access to electricity also refers to the availability of electricity in areas not reached by the grid. In this case, electricity is provided by a decentralised or stand-alone power source (petrol or diesel generator), or a renewable energy device (solar PV, wind turbine or biomass gasifier). The term “modern” is often introduced in the access discourse to make a distinction between traditional forms of energy like firewood or agricultural residues and commercial forms of energy like electricity or LPG. The term “modern” is also used to distinguish between traditional forms of technology like the simple three-stone cooking arrangement and relatively more knowledge-intensive technologies like the improved firewood stove or the mobile phone.

Ranjit and O’Sullivan (2002) argue that “access” refers to a household’s ability to obtain a modern energy service, should it decide to do so. In this case, access is a function of availability and affordability, where energy is considered to be available if the household is within the economic connection and supply range of the energy network or supplier, and energy is affordable when the household is able to pay the up-front connection cost (or first cost) and energy usage costs. In this context, a high up-front cost may discourage poor households from making a switch to a modern energy form even though this may be available, denying the household access to the energy form in question. Ranjit and O’Sullivan (2002) argue further that availability and affordability are interrelated, so that if a government decides to maintain energy prices below costs, with a view to making energy more affordable to the poorest households, it may actually reduce its availability, as the provider may find it unprofitable to extend coverage to areas where the poor reside.

This paper focuses on the availability or otherwise of modern energy services in Africa with reference to electricity and cooking fuels. Issues around affordability and the factors that drive both availability and affordability lie at the very heart of the discussion. Also recognised in the discussion, albeit implicitly, are the results from studies which have shown that actual transition is more dynamic than previously considered with many households using a combination of fuels (stacking) and that quite often there is also the emergence of home-based enterprises as household incomes improve (Karekezi and Majoro, 2002; Mekonnen and Köhlin, 2008; Ouedraogo, 2006).

Section snippets

Current access levels and projections

The sub-Saharan Africa region compares poorly with others in the developing world in terms of the proportion of the population relying on traditional biomass for cooking (see Fig. 1). At the national level, many countries like Liberia, Burkina Faso and Tanzania have more than 95% of their population relying on traditional biomass for cooking and heating. Access to modern energy systems for cooking is therefore very low in most sub-Saharan countries. In the EAC region, for instance, less than

Energy access targets and financing requirements

The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) set the ball rolling in 2001 by putting forward a set of objectives for the energy sector. Among these was the objective “to increase from 10% to 35% or more, access to reliable and affordable commercial energy supply by Africa’s population in 20 years”. It is important to note that the NEPAD objectives already, at this stage, pointed in the direction of productive activities for economic growth, reversing environmental degradation associated

Mobilising domestic financial resources and making better use of external inflows

On the domestic funding front, it is important that countries mobilise all the financial resources to make a stronger case for external funding. Experience shows that addressing African energy problems cannot be done without significant doses of local financing. The whole range of public sector resources (national budgets, electrification/energy funds based on levies and surcharges, debt relief, etc.) will need to be mobilised. A wide range of public financing instruments will also need to be

Conclusions

Sub-Saharan Africa compares poorly with other regions of the developing world in terms of the proportion of the population relying on traditional biomass for cooking, with serious environmental and health implications for the people. Access to electricity averages around 25% in sub-Saharan Africa today, which also compares poorly with other developing regions, and there is very low access to thermal energy and mechanical power for productive uses/income generation.

FEMA and several RECs have put

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