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ePaper created 2015-01-29, 17:46:37 | version 1.34.01
RENEWABLE ENERGY AND ENERGY EFFICIENCY STATUS REPORT 2014 | 29 02 In the face of severe energy challenges, ECOWAS Member States are embracing a variety of sustainable energy solutions across major sectors. While the region remains heavily dependent on traditional solid fuels like wood and charcoal for household energy use, efforts to expand deployment of efficient cook stoves and increase access to modern fuels are growing. Renewable contributions to the power sector are increasing and becoming more diversified. Although hydropower has been widely used throughout the region for many decades, deployment of non- hydro renewables is now beginning to accelerate. In the past few years, the region’s first large-scale commercial wind and solar projects have been deployed in Cabo Verde and Ghana, establishing these countries as regional leaders. Distributed renewable generation, mainly through solar PV, has been promoted through government and donor-based initiatives as a way to power schools, health clinics, community centres, and households, especially in rural areas. More concerted efforts to create commercial markets for these technologies and to use them as the basis for community development through mini-grids (see Sidebar 2) and other applications are now beginning to take shape throughout the region. This section assesses sustainable energy developments mainly in cooking and the power sector, as well as for water pumping, heating and drying. FINAL ENERGY CONSUMPTION The share of renewables in the region’s TFEC is relatively minor, although Member States’ specific shares vary significantly. According to SE4ALL’s Global Tracking Framework, as of 2010, RENEWABLE ENERGY MARKET AND INDUSTRY OVERVIEW vii. SE4ALL’s Global Tracking Framework uses the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s definition of “modern biomass,” which is biomass produced in a sustainable manner from solid wastes and residues from agriculture and forestry. Guinea-Bissau, Ghana, and Sierra Leone stood out as regional leaders in terms of the renewable contribution to their final consumption—at 30.3%, 22.4%, and 19%, respectively— largely as a result of their use of what SE4ALL refers to as modern biomass.vii,1 (See Table 3.) The other major renewable contributor to final energy consumption in the ECOWAS region is hydropower, which accounted for 6.7% of Ghana’s TFEC in 2010 and also played a relatively significant role in Togo (2.6%), Côte d’Ivoire (1.9%), and Mali (1.5%).2 Since 2010, renewable capacity has expanded significantly in some Member States, particularly Cabo Verde and Ghana.3 DISTRIBUTED RENEWABLE GENERATION, MAINLY THROUGH SOLAR PV, HAS BEEN PROMOTED THROUGH GOVERNMENT AND DONOR-BASED INITIATIVES AS A WAY TO POWER SCHOOLS, HEALTH CLINICS, COMMUNITY CENTRES, AND HOUSEHOLDS, ESPECIALLY IN RURAL AREAS.