The Push for Renewable Energy Adoption in Africa: Challenges and Prospects

Africa is endowed with a variety of renewable energy resources, including geothermal, solar, wind, hydropower and biofuels. These technologies are largely underexploited due to poor planning, funding and policy on energy on the continent and a high preference for conventional energy resources from fossil fuels. To understand the energy landscape of the continent, this chapter explores the energy potential of Africa, the factors that influence the uptake of renewable energy and the challenges encountered in the process. Findings show that deployment of renewable energy varies from country to country based on its preference, popular political ideologies and socioeconomic factors such as the prices of oil and gas, the gross domestic product of a country and awareness of carbon dioxide emissions. The push for renewables in Africa is therefore a political and socio-economic affair impeded by limited skilled humanpower, poor planning and delivery of power characterized by inequitable access and costing and lack of inter-country and international cooperation in energy delivery projects. To reverse these challenges and promote the infusion of renewable energy technologies for sustainable energy security, Africa should invest more in energy projects, cooperate and integrate to promote energy pooling and strategize better using effective policies and regulatory frameworks. This will enable enforcement of policies towards cleaner renewable energy use and reduce the costs of such energy while reducing the use of gas and oil and at the same time promoting sustainable economic growth and cleaner environments.