Powering the continent: Wind power in Africa

This post continues our series reviewing the status of various power generation technologies in Africa, their current status of deployment, cost competitiveness and long term potential to contribute to powering the continent.

Wind power is a widely deployed renewable technology with 318,105 MW of capacity installed worldwide as at the end of 2013 – with 35,289 MW was installed in 2013 alone (GWEC*).

Wind technology description

Wind energy has been successfully exploited for hundreds of years (e.g. to pump water). Modern wind turbines convert wind energy using wind turbines to produce electrical power. Energy in the wind turns 2-3 propeller-like blades around a rotor. The rotor is connected to the main shaft, which spins a generator to create electricity.

Wind turbines are mounted high on a tower to capture the most energy (these can be very high - total height for Vestas V164-8MW is approximately 220m high).  At such distances they can exploit faster and less turbulent wind (EERE**).

KenGen Ngong Hills Wind farm

Source: Thanks to EmmandKeith's Blog, see http://emmandkeith.wordpress.com/kenya-1/

Onshore wind - Installed capacity and projects under construction in Africa

Wind power is relatively new to the continent but its deployment is poised for significant take-up. As at the end of 2013, the continent has 1,200 MW of capacity installed (GWEC).  As shown below, there are significant pockets around North Africa, the horn of Africa and the Southern tip of the continent with good wind speeds that would enable considerable deployment.

Wind resource potential in Africa...

Source: E. Bartholomė, et al, The availability of renewable energies in a changing Africa Assessing climate and non-climate effects, Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, 2013, see http://iet.jrc.ec.europa.eu/remea/sites/remea/files/reqno_jrc81645_final_report.pdf

Despite the considerable deployment, deployment remains low. There are approximately 60 projects either completed, under construction or proposed with a capacity of 3,320MW (should all the announced projects go ahead, an additional 2,120 MW would be added).

Wind deployment in Africa (projects in operation, under construction or in the pipeline)

Source: The Wind Power, http://www.thewindpower.net/windfarms_africa_en.php and other news sources

Onshore cost competitiveness and commentary on its potential

Onshore wind has the advantage that it is scalable – it is feasible to develop anywhere from a single turbine to hundreds of turbines. It can therefore be used to power isolated communities or to connect to the grid.

It is also cost effective and relatively commercially mature compared to other renewable technologies. At a levelised cost of $80/MWh, it is cheaper than new hydro plants at $84/MWh; solar thermal and PV at $243/MWh and $130/MWh respectively. It is also competitive against coal ($96/MWh).
Despite these advantages, it is intermittent and not dispatachable (unless backed up with battery storage).

Costs of wind, and other power generation technologies in $/MWh 

Source: EIA, Levelised Cost of New Generation Resources in Annual Energy Outlook 2014, April 2014

Conclusion: Wind has considerable potential in the continent and we believe it should be firmly in the menu of choices for countries with good wind speeds.

Sources: 

*Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC), Global Wind Report, Annual Market Update 2013, see http://www.gwec.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/GWEC-Global-Wind-Report_9-April-2014.pdf

**US Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), How does a wind turbine work? See http://energy.gov/eere/wind/how-does-wind-turbine-work