World Bank-backed Project To Study Wind Energy Potential In African Countries

A global program backed by the World Bank aimed at studying and determining renewable energy potential across the world will now focus on three African countries.

Under the Energy Sector Management Assessment Program (ESMAP), DNV GL is working to determine wind energy potential in Zambia, Tanzania, and the Maldives. The first phase of the project — which begun in June, 2014, and finished earlier this year — included preliminary investigation of wind flow to build an initial wind energy potential atlas. DNV will also set up workshops to train professionals to interpret the wind atlas. Workshops will also be held for government officials, decision makers, and other stockholders.

In the second phase, DNV will train professionals to set up and maintain wind masts for collecting wind potential data over a period of two years. The final phase will include creating a redefined and validated meso-micro wind atlas in the three countries, and combining the collected data with real-life figures.

Several regional and national projects under ESMAP have been implemented in developing and least developed countries around the world, yielding encouraging results. Some of the success stories attributed to work done under the ESMAP include rural electrification in African countries and an increase in transmission capacity in an Indian state to facilitate increased use of renewable energy.

Another important and highly successful project completed under ESMAP was the study of solar concentrated power potential in Morocco. The results of the project led to the construction of one of the largest concentrated solar power projects in the world. The power plant at Ouarzazate is expected to have an installed capacity of 2 GW by 2020.