Countries vow to form Africa clean energy corridor

Abu Dhabi -- Nineteen countries have pledged to create an Africa Clean Energy Corridor to exploit the continent’s vast renewables potential.

Energy ministers and delegates from the countries endorsed an action agenda drawn up by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) in Abu Dhabi, ahead of this week’s World Future Energy Summit.

The corridor is designed to boost the deployment of renewable energy and help meet Africa’s rising energy demand with clean power from renewable sources such as hydro, geothermal, biomass, wind and solar.   IRENA’s director-general Adnan Z. Amin said the corridor would “provide the continent with the opportunity to leapfrog into a sustainable energy future.”

“The dynamic development that Africa will see in the next decades needs to extend to the energy sector, and Africa’s abundant renewable energy resources are a perfect match to meet rising demand in a sustainable and cost-effective way, from Cairo to Cape Town.”

Electricity demand is expected to triple in southern Africa and quadruple in east Africa over the next 25 years and there is a desire among many nations to meet this demand with renewables. Ethiopia’s energy minister Alemayehu Tegenu said the clean energy corridor would help “leverage the tremendous opportunity that renewable energy presents, for the best of the African states and the entire continent.”

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2014/01/countries-vow-to-form-africa-clean-energy-corridor