title: Strategic siting and regional grid interconnections key to low-carbon futures in African countries.
abstract: Recent forecasts suggest that African countries must triple their current electricity generation by 2030. Our multicriteria assessment of wind and solar potential for large regions of Africa shows how economically competitive and low-environmental-impact renewable resources can significantly contribute to meeting this demand. We created the Multicriteria Analysis for Planning Renewable Energy (MapRE) framework to map and characterize solar and wind energy zones in 21 countries in the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) and the Eastern Africa Power Pool (EAPP) and find that potential is several times greater than demand in many countries. Significant fractions of demand can be quickly served with "no-regrets" options-or zones that are low-cost, low-environmental impact, and highly accessible. Because no-regrets options are spatially heterogeneous, international interconnections are necessary to help achieve low-carbon development for the region as a whole, and interconnections that support the best renewable options may differ from those planned for hydropower expansion. Additionally, interconnections and selecting wind sites to match demand reduce the need for SAPP-wide conventional generation capacity by 9.5% in a high-wind scenario, resulting in a 6-20% cost savings, depending on the avoided conventional technology. Strategic selection of low-impact and accessible zones is more cost effective with interconnections compared with solutions without interconnections. Overall results are robust to multiple load growth scenarios. Together, results show that multicriteria site selection and deliberate planning of interconnections may significantly increase the economic and environmental competitiveness of renewable alternatives relative to conventional generation.
authors.affiliation: Energy and Resources Group, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720; grace.cc.wu@berkeley.edu rdeshmukh@lbl.gov.|International Energy Studies Group, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720.
authors.forename: Grace C
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-8290-119X
authors.initials: GC
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Energy and Resources Group, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720; grace.cc.wu@berkeley.edu rdeshmukh@lbl.gov.|International Energy Studies Group, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720.
authors.forename: Ranjit
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Deshmukh
authors.affiliation: Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency, Namibia University of Science and Technology, Windhoek, Namibia.
authors.forename: Kudakwashe
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ndhlukula
authors.affiliation: Country Support and Partnerships, International Renewable Energy Agency, Masdar City, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
authors.forename: Tijana
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Radojicic
authors.affiliation: Energy and Resources Group, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720.|International Energy Studies Group, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720.
authors.forename: Jessica
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Reilly-Moman
authors.affiliation: International Energy Studies Group, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720.
authors.forename: Amol
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Phadke
authors.affiliation: Energy and Resources Group, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720.
authors.forename: Daniel M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Kammen
authors.affiliation: Energy and Resources Group, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720.
authors.forename: Duncan S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Callaway
keywords: Africa; energy policy; interconnections; renewable energy; siting