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The Climate Question: Will Africa really leapfrog to renewables?

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31/01/2021 GMT

Will Africa really leapfrog to renewables?

BBC World Service - The Climate Question, Will Africa really leapfrog to renewables?

Thousands of power plants are planned in Africa. Will fossil fuels or renewables prevail?

Thousands of new power plants are planned across the continent. But the majority are expected to run on fossil fuels. What would it take to bring clean power to every African?

Africa has an electricity crisis. Hundreds of millions of people lack cheap, steady supply, crippling lives in countless ways. Every other continent has electrified off the back of fossil fuels but Africa, on the face of it, has the opportunity to do it differently. Researchers found that some 2,500 power plants are planned across the continent. But the majority are expected to run on fossil fuels threatening to lock Africa into dirty energy for decades. In this edition of The Climate Question, we ask: What would it take to bring clean power to every African?
 
For answers, we have one of Africa’s leading experts on power. Damilola Ogunbiyi ran the Lagos power authority before taking over efforts to electrify Nigeria’s rural communities. Today, she’s the CEO of Sustainable Energy for All and the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Sustainable Energy for All.
 
We are also joined by Tony Tiyou, the Cameroonian CEO of the firm Renewables in Africa.
 
And we hear from a community in Nigeria where people just want the lights on, now.

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