(AFP Photo)
The African Development Bank (AfDB) plans to boost energy generation capacity athydropower plants to 40,000 MW, with connections to Nigeria, South Africa and Egypt, according to AfDB’s report issued Tuesday.
The report said that Africa’s hydro and solar potentials could secure energy supply for the continent; moreover, Egypt has a great opportunity to reach universal access to energy through its great solar energy.
The bank is working on power sector projects and expects to provide electricity to an additional 33.7 million people in Africa in the period of 2014–2018, according to the report.
The bank is working on one of the largest solar power plants in Morocco, set to provide 500 MW when completed. The project aims to establish a network of solar power plants connected through a transmission infrastructure with Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt and Jordan.
The project is financed by AfDB, the Clean Technology Fund, the World Bank, the FrenchDevelopment Agency, the European Investment Bank, Germancooperation, and the Moroccan government.
AfDB issued the “Development Effectiveness Review on Energy 2014” report, revealing that the AfDB committed $13bn over the past two decades to build up the energy sector in Africa.
The majority of this amount went towards building national generation capacity and distribution networks, emphasising on rural electrification to promote inclusive growth.
The bank provided 567,000 people with new electricity connections, and over 14 million people with improved access to electricity and is expected to be doubled by 2018.
“Overcoming Africa’s energy deficits will require investments of more than $60bn every year until 2040,” the report read. “The bank seeks to help its member states to develop public-private partnerships to provide power infrastructure and to access sources of climate change finance.”
The bank stated in its report that it will support regional investments that link national electricity systems into regional power pools to enable power-sharing across national borders.
“The AfDB funded El-Kureimat Combined Cycle Power Plant, which provided 780 MW of additional capacity, increasing the national generation capacity by 3.2%”, besides providing new connections for 170,000 people, the report added.
“In addition, another major investment the bank has done in energy sector in Egypt is the $500m Suez Thermal Power Project,” the report said.
