Key results - Africa

Moving from principles to action for energy supply that mitigates against climate change requires a long-term perspective. Energy infrastructure takes time to build up; new energy technologies take time to develop. Policy shifts often also need many years to take effect. In most world regions the transformation from fossil to renewable energies will require additional investment and higher supply costs over about twenty years

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regional results africa heating supply

heating supply

Today, renewables provide 79% of Africa’s energy demand for heat supply, the main contribution coming from the traditional use of biomass. Dedicated support instruments are required to ensure a dynamic future development. In the Energy [R]evolution scenario, renewables provide 84% of Africa’s total heat demand in 2030 and 93% in 2050.

Energy efficiency measures will restrict the future energy demand for heat supply in 2020 to an increase of 18% compared to 34% in the Reference scenario, in spite of improving living standards.
In the industry sector solar collectors, biomass/biogas as well as geothermal energy are increasingly substituted for conventional fossil-fired heating systems.
A shift from coal and oil to natural gas in the remaining conventional applications leads to a further reduction of CO2 emissions.

Table 5.26 shows the development of the different renewable technologies for heating in Africa over time. Biomass will remain the main contributor of the growing market share. After 2020, the continuing growth of solar collectors and a growing share of geothermal energy and heat pumps will reduce the dependence on fossil fuels.