African wind power struggles to gain momentum

Africa has an abundance of wind resources, but few African countries harness wind energy on a large scale.

The Global Wind Energy Council found that Africa is only utilising 0.01% of the 59,000 gigawatts (GW) that the IFC says is available on the continent. Yet Africa has the potential to supply its electricity demand 250 times over from wind resources alone. Vuyo Ntoi sat down to share his insights with African Business and discuss the nature of wind farm developments and the issues impacting its ability to be deployed across Africa.

These include long lead times before bankability, the need for government support and reliance on national grids. This results in a reluctance to commit to wind developments without a reliable off-taker. Vuyo adds that “wind developers, as with other energy developers, are loath to develop projects into an ecosystem with poor credit quality.”

Read more on African Business’ website.