Clean energy transition will generate $27Trn prospects in Africa: IEA

Clean energy transition will generate $27Trn prospects in Africa: IEA

African countries like Nigeria are reportedly facing an urgent need to take action on the shift towards cleaner energy, which could potentially offer new market opportunities of up to $27 trillion by 2050.

The ARDA (African Refiners and Distributors Association) has recently expressed their concerns regarding factors like the growing population of the continent, rising demand for energy and budding energy storage and distribution infrastructure issues.

Meanwhile, speaking at the 2022 ARDA virtual workshop on lowering the carbon footprint of storage and distribution supply chains in Africa, the IEA (International Energy Agency) and CITAC Africa raised their concerns about the budding demand for energy, inability to diversify the productive capacity of the economies, lack of refining capacity, along with the rising emissions.

Tae-Yoon Kim, an expert at IEA, said that Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and Nigerian countries are a significant part of the global mineral resources, vital for clean energy technologies.

As per Kim, the volatile growth in deployment of clean energy can create a market opportunity of $27 trillion up till 2050 for the key equipment manufacturers.

Solar PV modules, fuel cells, battery packs, electrolyzers, and wind turbines are bi-products of solid minerals like cobalt, manganese, platinum, chromium, copper, graphite, and bauxite, which would outgrow cleaner energy technologies and new commerce for Africa, said Kim.

He further noted that Africa's expansive land and copious amounts of natural resources offer the potential for the production of less-expensive low-carbon hydrogen out of renewables.

Anibor Kragha, Executive Secretary, ARDA, spoke on the exponential growth in population, stating that the demand for fossil fuels and imports in Africa would grow in the next two decades along with the major population growth, which could lead to increased pollution.

He criticized that Africa currently has just six countries for crude oil pipelines, six with both crude oil and product pipelines and eight with product pipelines.

Source Credit - https://guardian.ng/business-services/energy-transition-creates-27tr-opportunities-for-africa-says-iea-expert/