Highly renewable energy systems in Africa: Rationale, research, and recommendations

This review paper, the first to examine Africa's state of the art fully renewable energy system analyses, assesses the status and findings of 100% renewable energy system analyses for Africa published in scientific journals. In total, 54 articles published since 2000 have been identified and analyzed. Most of these studies are relatively new and focus on the power sector, while less attention is given to other energy sectors. Despite being projected to account for a quarter of world population by 2050, Africa is the least researched region for 100% renewable energy systems in the world. Notably, the geographical scope of 100% renewable energy research in Africa is limited; Morocco and Nigeria are the most researched countries, but France's overseas department of La Réunion receives the same attention, which reinforces the point of lack of interest or focus of the research community on the African continent. The literature review further documents significant gaps in fully renewable energy system research for Africa, including low resolution in sector coverage, time, space, and applied technology diversity. Despite Africa being the continent suffering from the lowest rates of electricity access, there is no single energy system model that can coherently model the transition of on-grid and off-grid solutions in a comprehensive energy system transition.

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