African Clean Energy Corridor: Regional integration to promote renewable energy fueled growth

The Africa Clean Energy Corridor (ACEC) initiative aims to facilitate regional cooperation on promoting regional electricity trade and renewable deployment, allowing to harness tremendous renewable energy potential existing in East and Southern African sub-regions in a Clean Energy Corridor (CEC) stretching from Egypt to South Africa. In this short communication, we outline what role renewable energy combined with regional integration plays in meeting Africa's growing energy demand. Results compare an ACEC scenario, where regional cooperation promoting trade and renewable energy deployment would create favorable market conditions for solar and wind technologies, with a business-as-usual scenario where the region decides to deploy more fossil based power while using hydro resources mainly to meet domestic demand. We find both a decrease in overall system costs mainly due to the shift from high cost fossil fuel sources to a combination of further deployment of hydropower in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia, complemented by high quality wind potential in East Africa. This scenario would reduce carbon emissions by 40%, compared to a business-as-usual scenario where hydropower potential remains to be used only for domestic purposes. Our model showcases potential costs and benefits of combining regional integration with increased use of renewable energy. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.