With the untapped energy resources endowed with, lack of legal frame work to involve private companies of both local and international in (PPP) public- private-partnership, lags behind to use renewable energy resources.
This is said while RES4Africa organized its annual conference on a theme of ‘how to enable a step-change in attracting renewable energy investment in Africa” last Wednesday at the Sheraton Addis Hotel.
“We cannot talk of a prosperous Africa without energy at the heart. Energy is vital for the Continental Free Trade Agreement (CFTA), education, health and jobs for our growing youthful population,” said Antonio Cammisecara, President of RES4Africa.
“Bringing RE investment in Africa to transform scale requires overcoming policy and regulatory, administrative and capacity and financing challenges that investors face in emerging economies,” adds Cammisecara.
Africa has tremendous opportunities to deploy its vast renewable energy resources, however, government monopoly of the energy sector is one of the drawbacks in delivering access to energy to the people of Africa which the problems exist in Ethiopia as well.
The Ethiopian government already began the PPP arrangement to involve potential private international companies in the area.
As Ethiopia has the strategy of becoming a world class exporter of large amounts of clean and cheap renewable energies to neighboring countries and manufacturing hub, the Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Energy, is working boldly in order to use the countries potential in solar, wind, and geothermal and other alternative energy sources said Silesh Bekele Minister of Water, Irrigation and Energy adding that regulatory frame work and other necessary documents are in pipeline.
The current energy generation highly relies on hydropower with 3800 MW equal to 89 percent of total generation capacity and the electrification rate of 85 percent in urban areas is high but drops dramatically to 10 percent in rural areas, so only 25 percent of Ethiopian citizens enjoy access to energy.
Studies of RES4Africa focus on attaining a more balanced energy mix between hydro resources, solar, wind and geothermal sources, diversifying mix of energy resource will improve the security of supply and will help mitigate the effect of climate changes.
Bio mass resources from wood residues and sugar waste can also contribute to the energy diversification.
Private companies who are engaged in generating green power like Enel, is offering solutions for countries to implement but not force, adds the president of RES4Africa.