Senegal is taking the lead in developing solar energy

Both at home and across Africa, Senegal is taking the lead in developing solar energy as a means to power the future, stepping up the use of renewables to overcome its own deficit and promoting a massive international programme aimed at ending Western Africa’s dependence on fossil fuels.

In early July, the heads of state of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) endorsed Senegal’s President Abdoulaye Wade proposal to construct a series of massive solar energy facilities in the Sahara Desert to meet the region’s power needs.

The plan stemmed from a presentation given by Wade at the Copenhagen climate summit in December last year, when he said Africa could become a net electricity exporter, as well as meet its own energy needs, through the construction of plants capable of generating some 100,000 MW of power.

According to the Senegalese president, an investment of $350bn – the initial price tag put on the scheme – would soon pay for itself and within seven years provide free energy to Africa.

Furthermore, Wade held up a vision of the future that saw the continent rapidly boost its level of economic development to competitive levels. “With this project, Africa will catch up,” he told delegates at the UN summit.

In a statement issued at the end of the ECOWAS meeting in Cape Verde on July 2, President Wade was mandated to pursue planning and feasibility studies “in order to ensure its self-sufficiency in clean and cheap solar energy”.

ECOWAS member states were also urged to provide the statistical information needed for the successful conclusion of the study and second technical and financial experts to assist in the project.

The ECOWAS decision came on the heels of the Senegalese parliament ratifying legislation aimed at facilitating greater domestic deployment of solar and renewable energy generation capacity.

In late June, the parliament unanimously approved the Guidance on Renewable Energy Bill, with the legislation having three main objectives: to help secure energy supplies at a sustainable cost; to reduce vulnerability to pricing instability on international oil markets; and to increase access to modern energy sources.

To achieve these goals, the government has committed itself to the development and exploitation of the nation’s energy potential in the fields of solar, biofuels and other forms of renewable energy.

As Senegal is not an oil-producing country, it is essential to develop non-fossil fuel sources, Therese Coumba Diop, the former minister of renewable energies, biofuels and aquaculture, told the parliament after the bill was adopted.

“Nature has endowed Senegal with solar energy. We have a potential of 3000 hours of sunshine that we can develop,” she said.

Though Senegal may be richly endowed when it comes to solar radiation, it has so far done little to cash in on this resource. Currently, renewable generation capacity contributes just 1% of Senegal’s total production, though the government wants to increase this to 15% by 2020 by supporting the use of a mix of alternative energy sources, with wind power and biofuels also to be utilised alongside solar.

While the new legislation was welcomed, there were no exact figures as to how much capital would be ploughed into the renewable energy sector, or what the time frame for investments would be.

There were also suggestions that policy incentives will be required to ensure that local businesses benefit from the scheme. Abdoulaye Sene, the chairman of the parliamentary Committee on Development and Planning, said that the government should open talks with the private sector and offer tax incentives to prompt Senegalese entrepreneurs to participate in the projects.

The government should also move to promote greater use of renewable energy in state facilities and install solar equipment in offices, schools and community houses, he said.

While the state is keen on promoting solar and other renewable energy sources, alternative energy will nonetheless only make up a fraction of the total output required to keep Senegal’s lights on. The government has also expressed an interest in building a nuclear power station with French assistance, with Energy Ministry officials saying in March that such a plant could be operational by 2020.

Solar energy could well be a way to resolve some of those bottlenecks, up domestic generation capacity and reduce the import bill, but it will take sustained support from the government, as well as the backing of foreign partners, before the sun can light up Senegal’s economy, let alone that of all of West Africa.