Senegal will be among seven African countries benefiting from The Rockefeller Foundation’s recent partnership agreement with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to promote renewable energy alternatives in emerging African countries.
The initiative seeks to save one billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions and give renewable energy alternatives to one billion people.
Seven sub-Saharan African countries are involved in the ten-year partnership: Senegal, Rwanda, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Malawi, and Uganda. These countries were chosen because their environment is thought to be conducive to expanding energy access, whether through policies aimed at deploying mini-electrical networks or consolidating existing networks.
Also read: Senegal’s energy shift: from heavy fuels to Renewables and Natural Gas
Senegal has the capacity to implement commercial-scale solar photovoltaic power plants as the Direct Normal Solar Irradiation (DNSI) over the majority of the country is over 1,800 kWh/ m2 /year. Wind speeds ranging from 3.7 m/s to 6.1 m/s have also been recorded along the 250 km stretch of coast between Dakar and Saint Louis. In addition to the great hydropower potential of the Senegal river, these renewable energy sources provide fertile ground for this type of investments.
This collaboration between the IFC and the US philanthropic institution is part of a wider project announced in June last year that involves developing a $1 billion platform with the IKEA Foundation to combat global warming and energy poverty.
