Articles

Is transmission, solar the answer to connecting Africa?

Getting power to the remotest of places —now called the last mile —is the greatest poser for governments. Power remains unaffordable to a majority of the population whose access is also limited by irregular distribution of transmission lines. Only 40 per cent of Africa’s billion-plus population has access to electricity and its distribution is skewed in favour of urban areas.

For areas that would not be economically served by a national grid, minihydros, solar farms and biofuels are coming at play especially for domestic and stand-alone factory use. Over the past decade, solar power has grown from 0.1 per cent of global power generation to 2.2 per cent in 2018.

Solar is expected to grow steadily driven by a sharp drop in installation costs which have seen it overtake nuclear and coal plants and rival natural gas and wind.

Read full article: The East African

 


 

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