Keywords

1 Introduction

According to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), cities consume about 65% of the global energy supply and account for about two-thirds of the global anthropogenic carbon emissions (IRENA, 2016). Therefore, besides increasing global attention focused on achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goal number 7, and the implementation of the Paris Agreement, the role of cities and municipalities in tackling climate change, promoting sustainable energy transitions and expanding the use of renewable energy is gaining recognition (Qudrat-Ullah et al., 2020), and (Hoppe et al., 2015). The reason is the municipalities’ position as the interface between the national government, the local communities, the private sector and the international community. Empowering municipalities can accelerate the adoption of smart technologies with increased efficiency and promote energy autarky. This role can be assumed in local energy initiatives (LEIs) that support value addition and markets for locally available energy resources, bottom-up business models for job creation, and national grid load alleviation schemes (Schmidt et al., 2012).

Traditionally, municipalities are tasked with the provision of high energy-consuming services, including transport, water and wastewater management services, and buildings maintenance through closely linked systems and networks of actors providing and consuming various services at various scales. Thus, the increased interest of stakeholders, including development agencies, on the way to leverage the unique role of municipalities as large consumers of energy and as intermediaries to implement local communities’ energy agendas. However, as Gustafsson and Mignon (2019) argue, this role is also quite complex, depending on the structure of national governance, whether centralized or decentralized. The authors observe that the bottom-up approach to energy transition used in decentralized governance is highly participatory, innovative and competitive. Engelken et al. (2016) demonstrate that when the municipalities leadership aims for energy self-sufficiency, this can be a catalyst for the energy transition. In addition, da Silva and Horlings (2020) observed that local energy production initiatives are important contributions to access renewable energy, especially when municipalities are involved through the provision of resources to support the promoters.

Since 2008, more than 50% of the world’s population live in cities. This proportion is expected to increase to 67% by 2050 (Rosenzweig et al., 2010). This rapid urbanization will mostly take place in Africa, where eight out of ten countries with the highest rates of urbanization in the world are located (Santos et al., 2017). Therefore, municipalities in the region have an instrumental role to play in the global transition to sustainability by using locally available renewable energy resources to supply the increasing energy demand driven by urbanization. Since cities worldwide have different sizes and energy potentials, there is a wide range of initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the energy sector by leveraging locally available resources. There are also social reasons for the cities’ leading role of action for sustainability, including the fact that cities are a hotbed of change actions (Bakker, 2003). The recent citizens’ mobilization has repositioned issues such as supply with renewable energy resources and efficiency of energy demand higher in the agenda of decision-makers. In sub-Saharan Africa, these social incentive and infrastructure investments should primarily target diverse challenges that still impede the implementation of local energy initiatives, including:

  • Organization of a balanced supply and demand market with reliable and tailor-made technologies

  • Access to financing mechanisms that facilitate access to renewable and efficient energy technologies

  • Establishment of a regulatory framework that provides legitimacy to a local energy agenda

  • Availability of managerial resources to implement and monitor initiatives in the field

Municipalities’ participation in the implementation of local energy initiatives is crucial not only in mitigating climate change, but also in promoting local energy markets, with integrated value chains. In addition, the accelerated uptake of decentralized renewable energy systems, which is driven by increased innovation in off-grid and mini-grid technologies, contributes to reducing production costs (Ministere en charge des Energies, 2017). This provides an important opportunity for the promotion of entrepreneurship using local energy resources for clean cooking and lighting. The current situation of energy access and energy efficiency in West Africa is somewhat paradoxical. Firstly, the majority of the population has no access to modern energy services. Secondly, a significant share of the existing energy resources is wasted (ECREEE, 2013). In addition, Qudrat-Ullah et al. (2020) note that in the African context, although there are accelerated efforts towards energy access from off-grid renewable energy sources, the role of municipalities, especially in sustainable energy planning and the transition is still unsatisfactory. However, the literature evidenced the role of municipalities in the design and implementation of energy initiatives that meet the local demand with locally available resources (Hoppe & Miedema, 2020), and (Warbroek & Hoppe, 2017).

This chapter aims to introduce levers of action for municipalities in sub-Saharan Africa to drive the political agenda of the energy transition to sustainability, learning from past initiatives and current challenges. In this regard, the study aims to answer the following questions: How do consumers perceive the use of locally available energy solutions? How could municipalities lead the transition to sustainable energy production and consumption locally?

2 Methodological Approach

The study approach consisted of a structured survey conducted in Diamniadio, a district located in Dakar, Senegal, in order to understand drivers of energy behaviour in the city.

2.1 Survey Site

Diamniadio is a district in the municipality of Rufisque, which is located 30 km from the Dakar Metropolitan area (Journal Officiel Gouvernement du Senegal, 2002). According to data from the National Statistics and Demography Agency (ANSD), the district is home to 2274 dwellings and 1205 commercial buildings in 2018. ANSD also provided data on 136 small businesses using makeshift facilities such as fruit stalls. The majority (52.6%) of surveyed dwellings have revenues between EUR 152 (CFA F 100,000) and EUR 381 (CFA F 250,000) per month. Two structured survey questionnaires, one for residential buildings and another for commercial buildings, were prepared to collect data. The questionnaire applied to residential buildings includes nine sections with questions on the characteristics of the buildings (size, envelope and orientation), various energy services (lighting, indoor cooling, cooking, etc.), energy supply options, and the perception of social and environmental parameters related to the energy sector (CO2 emissions, odour, smoke, etc.). The questionnaire applied to commercial buildings includes questions on building characteristics, energy supply options and perception of social and environmental parameters related to the sector but excludes cooking energy from energy services.

2.2 Sampling, Data Collection and Processing

The survey on citizens’ energy behaviour in Diamniadio was conducted between November and December 2018. The survey sample was statistically computed from ANSD data on residential and commercial buildings, considering a significance rate of 95%. The sample size was 330 residential buildings and 350 commercial buildings. The building selection used the random-step approach, which means that for each of the five data collector groups, the first building is randomly selected and the following ones are equally distanced (the step). The survey was carried out within the framework of the Sustainable Energy Access for Sustainable Cities (SEA4cities) project. The SEA4cities team, accompanied by 14 residents of the district, went door-to-door with the questionnaires in order to capture how citizens consume energy. The study seeks to understand how this behaviour affects four levers of action that municipalities can pull for transition to energy sustainability:

  • Promotion of efficient energy services through the control of appliances and devices available in the local market.

  • Decentralized energy production with locally available renewable energy resources through community grids or private wire networks.

  • Management of sustainable energy production and efficient energy consumption through the recruitment of trained human resources who are able to plan the demand-supply equilibrium.

  • Levers of communication on and dissemination of good practices to motivate citizens’ contributions to the local action agenda.

The strategies proposed in this chapter derive from the results of data assessment in the background of these four pillars. The two first sections of the questionnaire target the building characteristics and the profile of occupants. Sections 3–6 of the questionnaire target the dwellings’ energy consumption. Questions include energy-consuming appliances and devices in the building such as lamps, ovens and air conditioners.

In sections 7 and 8, data on the perception of building occupants of the social and environmental parameters related to energy use, such as the cost of electricity from the grid and material pollution, were gathered. The sections also include questions on the current state of access to energy with decentralized systems.

The open questions in Sect. 9 relate to the economic and environmental motivations of a hypothetical transition to a renewable energy supply such as rooftop solar photovoltaic installations or waste recycling units. There, we question the interviewees’ awareness of global challenges related to the energy sector, such as the mitigation of climate variability, reduction of reliance on oil imports, and impact of greenhouse gas emissions on sea-level rise that affects many districts in Dakar, including the adjacent districts of Bargny and Malika. The Excel-based analysis of data collected from the survey was completed by a review of literature on energy in urban environments.

3 Results and Discussions

The survey response rate was 115% in residences (368 surveyed) and 63.4% in commercial buildings (222 surveyed).

3.1 Energy Services

The Excel-based analyses of data collected were grouped in three (3) indicators:

  • Energy behaviour with respect to major services including lighting, ventilation and other plugging appliances in buildings

  • Energy supply with respect to connection to the grid or alternative supply options using diesel or renewable energy resources in buildings

  • Demand-supply equilibrium at the level of the community

Ventilation in buildings accounted on average for 51.42% of electricity consumption in the buildings surveyed, while lighting accounted for 19%. The rest of the electricity is consumed by other plugging appliances and devices, which include fridges, televisions and mobile phones. Therefore, efforts to improve energy use in buildings should dedicate a higher share of attention to ventilation devices and modalities to reduce their energy intensity. Action in this domain can include legal provisions in the building code regarding materials and architecture and restrictions in the market that set efficiency threshold (in BTU) for devices such as (air conditioners and fans), considering also cost for communities. The regulator can set the market signal with a recommendation list of devices having a weighted score combining efficiency and market price.

3.2 Supply Options

All surveyed households were connected to the national electricity grid, and one had an additional solar photovoltaic system. The analysis of waste-to-energy as an alternative to the grid is because there are previous studies on its potential in the district, which confirm readily available resources. Data in the analysis are from the report of Unité de Coordination et de Gestion des déchets (UCG), the municipality department in charge of waste management (Unite de Coordination et de Gestion des Dechets, 2016). Between 2014 and 2015, UCG completed a waste characterization study in the district of Diamniadio. Three (3) indicators are considered in the assessment of the potential for recycling buildings waste into energy:

  • Quantity of waste generated in buildings (in kg/year)

  • Energy potential of buildings waste converted through gasification (in kWh/year)

  • Energy potential of buildings waste converted through incineration (in kWh/year)

Figure 3.1 shows the potential of energy recovery from the waste produced in buildings in Diamniadio using two waste-to-energy technologies: incineration and gasification. The potential for recovering energy from waste through gasification is established based on the proportion of biodegradable materials in waste collected (13%). Thus, the average potential is projected at 1.664 kWh per year. The recovery potential by incineration is established based on the proportion of waste materials that can be incinerated, including wood logs, plastics and paper waste (46.7%). The average potential is 5978 kWh per year.

Fig. 3.1
figure 1

Potential of energy recovery from waste generated by surveyed buildings

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Thus, it appears that energy recovery by waste incineration returns a higher energy potential. This information on the potential of energy recovery from available waste is necessary for planning periods where energy recovered from waste in community grids or stand-alone systems is enough to meet the demand and periods where supply from the interconnected grid is necessary. Since the intermittence factor is less important in waste to energy than it is in solar photovoltaic and wind energy, such planning with energy potential recovered per period could provide better predictions on the quantity of energy required from the grid.

3.3 Energy Supply and Demand in Local Communities

In Senegal, the main source of energy supply in cities is the interconnected grid, with over 90% of city buildings connected to a grid (International Energy Agency, 2020). The interconnected grid is characterized by the prevalence of fossil fuels in electricity production. Other energy uses in buildings, such as liquefied petroleum gas in cooking, also rely on fossil fuels, namely crude oil. In 2016, diesel oil, heavy fuel and natural gas accounted for over 80% of the overall country’s energy supply. Senegal averaged about 48% energy independence (Ministere en charge des Energies, 2018). The rate has improved slightly since, due to the progressive introduction of large solar power plants in the grid generation.

However, the situation also depicts the underutilized potential of locally available energy resources to reduce both dependence on imported fossil fuels and greenhouse gas emissions as a contribution of local communities to the global action for mitigating climate change. This situation is unfortunate because it fails to integrate a powerful driver of communities’ ownership of the energy agenda. Two points are important to consider here.

Firstly, the survey in Diamniadio shows that the social value of energy matters to citizens. Figures 3.2, 3.3 and 3.4 lists the various attributes associated with energy fuels by surveyed populations and their degree of significance.

Fig. 3.2
figure 2

Attributes associated with Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG)

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The majority of respondents (38.6%) associate liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) with the attribute “Necessary,” followed by 22.8% of respondents who do not express an opinion on this fuel (No idea). The proportion of respondents who associate LPG with the attribute “Accessible” is also relatively important (21.2%).

Fig. 3.3
figure 3

Attributes associated with electricity

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The majority of respondents (62%) associate electricity with the attribute “Expensive,” and only 4% of respondents do not express an opinion about this form of energy (secondary energy produced from primary fuels and intended to power another use). This suggests a specific interest in electricity that was observed during the survey. The majority of respondents complained about their expensive electricity bills. Still, 12% of respondents associate electricity with “Cheap.” This may relate to a problem of communication between the interviewer and the respondents.

Fig. 3.4
figure 4

Attributes associated with Charcoal

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The majority of the respondents (48.6%) did not express an opinion on charcoal, and 21% of the respondents associate the fuel with “Accessible.”

Secondly, the respondents are aware of the environmental impact of pollution from energy use, because effects related to global warming are visible at the community level. For instance, sea-level rise primarily affects fishermen in the coastal area of Dakar who lost their houses, and therefore, their jobs in many cases. This absence of revenues affects municipality taxes and threatens the existence of the municipality when people are forced to settle outside the traditional community.

3.4 Determinants of Energy Efficiency in Local Communities

Energy efficiency is another important pillar of the energy transition agenda where municipalities have levers of action. The survey data show that actions to improve the efficiency of energy use in local communities are impeded by four factors.

Firstly, the financial capacity of households and commercial buildings is not enough to invest in retrofit initiatives with efficient appliances and devices. Some segments of the population surveyed, mainly in the residential sector, continue to focus more on economic parameters on the selection of plugging devices. The residential sector predominantly uses less efficient, second-hand or low-technology appliances that feature poor energy performances.

Secondly, coordination between local and national stakeholders (political decision-makers, industrialists, local residents) on energy planning is limited. Renewable energy penetration targets and energy-saving objectives are usually decided at the national level, and when it comes to implementation at the local level, there is either a lack of ownership or a deficit of resources to implement them. More than often, neither ownership nor resources are available to implement locally. And the political framework of possible actions remains loose. All competencies transferred to local authorities by the 1996 Decentralization Act include an energy dimension that is not fully addressed in action agendas. One example is the transfer of waste management competencies to local governments whose framework of application overlooks the potential of recycling this waste to energy, as demonstrated by the results of our survey. This situation is compounded by the absence in small municipalities such as Diamniadio of qualified resources that can reflect this energy dimension in documents from the central governments and initiate a bottom-up approach, rather than just a top-down approach.

The lack of financial and human resources in municipalities impedes the development of incentive mechanisms. Investments on renewable energy technologies and energy-efficient appliances and devices feature the specificity of important resources required upfront and less during operation. Then, it is important to design mechanisms that take into account the need to mobilize human and financial resources at early stages. Such mechanisms require the involvement of capital assets managers such as banks or community financing mechanisms. An example in Senegal is tontines that are managed by women’s associations. Mechanisms that use this readily available capital to fund the energy transition are possible, and each municipality can be innovative, depending on its social context and energy market.

3.5 Pillars of a Local Transition to Energy Sustainability

Learning from the results of our survey, four pillars necessary in the implementation of a sustainable energy agenda at the local level were identified:

Definition of a clear action agenda that complies with national objectives. National legislation on renewable energy and energy efficiency, including objectives, should serve as a background to design a local energy strategy that includes the following:

  • Identification of the energy behaviour of the community with data on energy-consuming devices and appliances, modalities of consumption such as comfort temperature and lighting requirements in lumen per square metre.

  • Identification of supply options, including locally available resources such as waste materials that could be converted to energy.

  • Definition of objectives and achievable indicators related to these objectives on the transition to energy sustainability at the local level. Thus, it is important to identify priority areas of action such as ventilation in the surveyed district, to achieve higher eco-efficiency factors for the municipality action.

  • Identification of bottlenecks and areas where the municipality’s involvement is required to push the transition agenda, including the involvement of capital assets managers, labelling devices available in the market to inform consumers on quality, and contribution to infrastructure projects and programmes (e.g. accessibility of lands) as an investment incentive that could contribute to lower financial risks.

Development of appropriate tools to track and monitor progress towards the objectives set out in the energy transition agenda.

Communication on the strategy: the municipality has the capacity to mobilize all players at the local level to support its action. This mobilization can include information meetings, training youths of the community in manufacturing the spare parts of the technology that can be manufactured locally and training on the maintenance of installed technologies.

Management of day-to-day activities of the agenda implementation: the management of an energy transition agenda at the local level should include, without limitations, the activities listed below:

  • Periodically collect energy data in community buildings in order to continuously refine planning models and update the objectives.

  • Initiate and implement demonstration activities in community/public buildings, such as lighting retrofit and passive ventilation. The municipality could also lead by example through the adoption of low-carbon measures in the transport of its personnel (use of mass transport, car-sharing, bicycle, etc.).

  • Integrate energy efficiency and ecological criteria in public procurement. The municipality can include energy indicators in its criteria for the selection of public service suppliers, for instance, energy performance of office equipment, in addition to existent criteria required by the Code des Marches Publics.

  • Recruit qualified human resources for the inspection of new buildings’ compliance with the energy efficiency requirements in the 2009 Building Code.

4 Conclusion

Over the years, Senegal has developed a comprehensive policy towards sustainability. The country has the potential to achieve universal access to energy services, energy self-sufficiency—excluding biomass—and a diversified energy mix by 2030. However, the question of what could the role of municipalities be in this context remains unanswered, especially at a time when the decentralization of national competencies is an important component of the central government policy. In 2013, the country started the third phase (Act 3) of its decentralization process. The process, so far, overlooked the potential contribution of municipalities in the energy sector that is cross-cutting to all sectors of decentralized competencies. The chapter demonstrated that municipalities could have a significant role in design and implementation of the national energy agenda, which could reconcile the objectives of the country in terms of renewable energy penetration, climate change mitigation and political decentralization.