Capacity Building for Sustainable Energy Access in the Sahel/Sahara Region: Wind Energy as Catalyst for Regional Development

Having been exposed to extremely weak grid absorption capacities while installing one Africa’s first 50 kW hybrid wind-diesel system in 1994, and because of the rather limited and decentralized grids of the countries located in the Saharan region (Mauritania, Senegal, Mali, Niger, Chad), the author of this paper is engaged in a broad ranging bottom-up capacity building strategy. The aim of this strategy is to provide or improve local energy access solutions relying on the region’s knowledge centers, universities, and local business in order to address the global challenges of climate change, environmental degradations and rampant desertification on largely agricultural based societies currently under high demographic pressure. While addressing a key brain drain issue due to mass migration, this program highlights the possibilities for synergies that a technology such as wind energy can provide when integrated and picked up by local industries.