Keywords

1 Introduction

Thermal power plants powered by fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas continue to be predominant in electricity generation worldwide, which highly affects the sector’s carbon footprint. Countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iceland, Albania, and Norway, which have a relatively high share of their electricity produced with renewable energy resources, exhibit the lowest carbon-electricity generation rates (IRENA, 2018). The decarbonization of electricity generation from utilities is necessary to reduce the environmental strain of energy production, especially in Africa, where the production and demand of electricity increase exponentially.

According to the International Energy Agency, More than half a billion people will be added to Africa’s urban population by 2040 (…). These growing urban populations mean rapid growth in energy demand, which makes the projected demand for oil of the continent by 2040 to be higher than that of China and second only to that of India. (IEA, 2019). In 2017, the total installed capacity of renewable energy for electricity generation in Africa was 42 GW. Analysis shows that the continent can meet half of its electricity demand equivalent to a capacity of 310 GW with renewable energy resources by 2030 (IRENA, 2019a, b, c). Therefore, the region urgently needs to improve its network infrastructure while decarbonizing the grid with clean energy technologies. However, the intermittency of renewable energy sources often necessitates the use of a baseload production, which in most cases, is powered by thermal resources. The penetration of intermittent renewable energy in the grid increases its instability and causes dispatching challenges to the utilities. In addition, conventional energy technologies, which are oil, coal, and natural gas, remain attractive (IRENA, 2019a, b, c), especially for developing countries that import renewable energy technology. Another problem relates to the selection of context-specific technologies in grid extension. These problems, among others, raise the question of the opportunity to invest in grid stabilization.

The previous studies on grid decarbonization mainly focus on the contribution of renewable energies to global value chains and the issue of grid stability. Considering sample countries in West Africa, this chapter explores how electricity generation with renewable energy can contribute to decarbonization of the grid while preserving its stability. The chapter is organized as follows: Section 2 reviews a couple of methods proposed to decarbonize electricity generation, as well as pathways to control grid stability. There, we propose a method tailored to the West African context in making generation with renewable energy more competitive. Section 3 presents the results of our analysis of investment costs associated with grid stability, generation with renewable energy, and reduction of the environmental strain. Section 4 discusses how the proposed method could contribute to making electricity generation with renewable energy more competitive in West Africa. The study’s objective is to advance knowledge on requirements to decarbonize utility generation and to phase-out sustainably subsidies on conventional electricity generation.

2 Methodological Approach

Several authors studied pathways to decarbonize the electricity generation of utilities. Therefore, several approaches and methodologies are available in the literature. Our study builds from literature review, and proposes a new approach to decarbonize electricity supply from the grid in West Africa.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2015) identified, with a consensus view of 830 scientists, engineers, and economists from 80 countries, four requirements to reach carbon neutrality in electricity generation by utilities. Those are (a) decarbonization of electricity generation; (b) massive electrification (using electricity from renewable sources) and switch to low-carbon fuels; (c) greater efficiency and less waste in all sectors; (d) improved carbon sinks such as forests, vegetation, and soil.

Similarly, the ASPEN Institute (Ballentine & Connaughton, 2019) expressed five basic elements for achieving deep decarbonization of the electricity network:

  1. (a)

    Use energy efficiency to the maximum degree in order to reduce energy demand

  2. (b)

    Electrify energy services as much as possible, including heat, transportation, and industrial processes

  3. (c)

    Use zero-carbon fuels in the areas that cannot be effectively connected to the grid

  4. (d)

    Use carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) and carbon dioxide removal techniques in areas where fossil fuels are still needed; and

  5. (e)

    Decarbonize the electricity supply

The World Bank Group (2015) proposed three (3) principles of a decarbonization scheme that can be adapted in each country:

  1. (a)

    To define a long-term target for the electricity sector that is consistent with decarbonization objectives and to design short-term sector-specific plans that contribute to the long-term target.

  2. (b)

    To set a policy package that triggers changes in investment patterns and technologies like carbon pricing, which is an efficient way to raise revenues that could support sustainability or help reduce other taxes (e.g. on imports of renewable energy technologies).

  3. (c)

    To bear in plans the political economy and smooth transition needs with a policy package that is more attractive to a majority of people.

The High-Level Platform for Sustainable Energy Investments in Africa (European Commission, 2019) proposes to reform fossil fuel subsidies specifically, alongside the introduction of decarbonization policies, circular economy practices, and strong environmental and social standards that align with energy efficiency, environmental protection and emissions’ performance standards.

Hirth and Steckel (2016) used the power market model EMMA, which is a techno-economic system optimization model (cost minimisation), to evaluate the impact of capital costs and carbon prices on the deployment of renewable energy and other low-carbon technologies in the grid, while accounting for value differences and system costs. They found that high capital costs can significantly reduce the effectiveness of carbon pricing. For instance, if carbon emissions are priced at USD 50 per metric ton and the Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC) is 3%, the cost-optimum electricity mix comprises 40% renewable energy.

After having explored the above-listed principles and methods, we propose the following package with five pillars as a contribution to reach decarbonization of electricity supply from the grid in the West Africa context.

Firstly, countries should set policies that promote renewable energy with practical measures to reallocate subsidies from fossil fuels to renewable energy technologies.

Secondly, decentralized mini-grids powered with locally available renewable energy resources should be prioritized in electrification programmes and in grid extension schemes.

Thirdly, countries should invest in computer based-modelling tools to model and anticipate grid instability, notably large disturbances that are due to renewable energy resources intermittency and short circuits of high voltage equipment.

Fourthly, each economic sector should be required to have specific plans of electricity supply with zero-carbon fuels, including renewable energy resources such as waste recycling in industry processes and solar rooftops in commercial buildings. The sectoral plans should also include energy efficiency measures to alleviate the demand.

Fifthly, an increase of the carbon sinks through afforestation and greening of urban areas should complement efforts in the electricity network.

3 Discussion of Findings

The International Renewable Energy Agency (2019) states that the share of renewable energy in the electricity supply could increase to 50% by 2030 and to 73% by 2050 in Africa. However, the investment requirements to stabilize the grid continue to hinder the process. Indeed, underinvestment in the electricity transmission and distribution networks leads to serious inefficiencies, with electricity losses averaging 14.8% of the production (Bose, 2003). For a long time, the investment cost of renewable energy technologies has been the major obstacle to the decarbonization of electricity generation by utilities. Nowadays grid stability is at top priority because the investment and production costs of renewable energy technologies are constantly decreasing, while network infrastructures remain underequipped. Table 8.1 provides an overview of the cost of electricity generated from different renewable energy technologies and statistical variations. IRENA states that onshore wind and solar PV are set by 2020 to consistently offer a less expensive source of new electricity than the least-cost fossil fuel alternative, without financial subsidies.

Table 8.1 Global electricity costs in 2018 (IRENA, 2019a, b, c)
Full size table

Addressing the issue of grid stability requires more human than financial resources. Context-specific solutions should be privileged, taking into account the available conventional and renewable energy resources. Considering the grid characteristics of Senegal and Ghana, we test how our approach could contribute to decarbonization of the electricity generated by the utilities in these countries.

In Senegal, thermal sources (diesel and heavy fuel) are still predominant in electricity generation. Table 8.2 provides an overview of the electricity production figures in 2017 from the utility (SENELEC).

Table 8.2 Senegal’s Electricity Production Mix in 2017 (SENELEC, 2017)
Full size table

In 2017, renewable energy in the electricity generation mix of the utility represented 16.9%. In 2018, the total installed capacity of solar photovoltaic and hydropower represented a renewable energy penetration equivalent to 21% of the total installed capacity, with 17% (157 MWp) from solar PV (CRSE, 2019). The grid emission factor in Senegal was 0.56 tCO2/MWh in 2018 (UNFCCC, 2017). In comparison, the average grid emission factor in Europe was 0.29 tCO2/MWh and 0.08 tCO2/MWh for Austria (European Environment Agency, 2018). This observation confirms the urgency to decarbonize electricity generation in Senegal. This decarbonization process can be incentivised by applying the first measure of our 5-pillar package, namely by shifting subsidies from existent and future fossil fuels-powered generation to promote investment in locally available renewable energy resources. In Senegal, these transfers should primarily target solar and wind resources that are available in many parts of the country. It is proven that onshore wind and solar PV are now less expensive sources for electricity generation than some fossil fuels, including fuel oil (IRENA, 2019a, b, c).

The integration of solar PV systems into the grid took place mainly between early 2016 and 2019. During that period, the solar PV capacity connected to the grid increased from 2 MWp to 157 MWp with the commissioning of eight (8) solar photovoltaic power plants: Bokhol (20 MWp), Malicounda (22 MWp), Santhiou Mékhé (30 MWp), Tenmérina (30 MWp), Kahone (20 MWp), Sakal (20 MWp), Diass (15 MWp) (ASER, 2019). This growth is driven by a political commitment to materialize provisions of the 2001 Law that promotes the diversification of the electricity generation mix by using locally available renewable energy resources. The external factor that supported the political action was the constant decrease in international markets of renewable energy technologies. The Senegal example confirms two levers are critical in grid decarbonization with renewable energy technologies, namely the combination of an internal factor, i.e. political will and an external factor, i.e. reduction of technology costs.

The continuing decrease of solar PV and wind energy technologies is an incentive for Senegal to continue investments in these technologies. Still, stability of the grid requires to integrate baseload generation technologies, and since 2018, the government has started investing in coal-powered power plants. This requirement could be balanced by another pillar of our approach, which is the development of carbon sinks. Afforestation initiatives to create carbon sinks should target urban and peri-urban areas to compensate emissions from the coal power plant and to target a net-zero network that combines the power plants and carbon sinks. Different vegetal species can be considered for carbon sink (e.g beefwood), and the areas of Bargny and Sebikotane located near the coal power plants should be prioritized for reforestation. Our second pillar, i.e. using computer-assisted modelling tools to control grid stability, can be considered in order to integrate decentralized energy generation systems in the fisheries and agriculture transformation industries installed in the vicinities of the coal power plants. Indeed, urban gardening and fish refrigeration in the coastal area of Senegal use decentralized energy generation facilities for water pumping and electrification. The integration of these systems into the network requires control tools that are flexible enough to adapt context-specific parameters such as power and operation hours.

Hydropower installations on the Volta River are predominant in the Ghana’s electricity supply mix. The Ghana generation capacity was 2450 MW in 2015, with 54% representing hydropower systems and 46% representing thermal generation systems (USAID, 2015). Table 8.3 provides an overview of figures related to the Ghana electricity generation mix.

Table 8.3 Ghana’s Electricity indicators in 2017 (Energy Commission of Ghana, 2018)
Full size table

The predominance of hydropower in the electricity supply mix explains the relatively low grid emission factor, compared to Senegal. Considering the geographic position of Ghana, an investment in carbon sinks through initiatives such as REDD+ could also be considered to compensate for emissions from thermal generation power plants.

The investment in additional renewable energy resources could target rural areas of the country with off-grid energy solutions such as decentralized grids in the replacement of grid extension schemes. Another pillar of our approach for decarbonizing the grid in Ghana should target the mining industry, especially small-scale mining businesses, which could significantly alleviate the grid.

From these two examples of countries having different energy mixes and grid emission factors, we see applicability of our approach, at diverse degrees, as a contribution to decarbonize electricity generation by the utility.

The cost of decarbonization could be further reduced in both countries with ambitious policies that provide local governments with competencies to manage energy systems established in their territories, such as third-party access to the grid. The implementation of these policies should be sustained by the development of tools that monitor deficit or excess of production due to intermittency of renewable energy resources and the investment in baseload systems using renewable energy resources, which can be biomass or hydropower. The design of a consistent agenda, including the proposed five-pillar package to decarbonize the grid, will further support local governments’ contributions to current initiatives for transition to energy sustainability in rural and urban communities of the West Africa region.

4 Conclusion

The West Africa region is endowed with renewable energy resources, including solar photovoltaic and hydropower, which national utilities are increasingly using to generate electricity and improve access through the interconnected grid. In addition, mass electrification using decentralized mini-grids in West Africa proved that renewable energy technologies are applicable solutions to improve access. For instance, the rural electrification programme (ERIL) in Senegal, which promotes decentralized solar photovoltaic mini-grids in Senegal’s countryside, rather than the extension of the interconnected grid, increased the rate of electrification in rural areas to 42% in 2018 compared to 16% in 2007 (ASER, 2019). However, the challenge remains on how to stabilize the grid while transitioning to low-carbon electricity generation, whether it is in urban or rural communities. The five-pillar approach proposed in this chapter is a contribution to a holistic solution that decarbonizes the grid while preserving its stability. The contribution of local government to the process requires that the pillars be adapted to communities’ context; baseload generation to stabilize the grid can use either biomass, including recycled waste-to-energy, or hydropower, depending on the context. This adaption should mobilize local and national competencies, as well as the research community, in innovating with adaptable tools that simulate and monitor decarbonization schemes in order to meet the energy access and transition to sustainability objectives of countries in West Africa region.