Renewables supplied only a third of Africa’s electricity demand growth in 2020 according to energy think tank Ember’s The Global Electricity Review.

The Global Electricity Review showed that wind and solar showed resilient growth in 2020, despite the COVID-19 pandemic. While this forced a record fall in global power figures, this was not mirrored in Africa.

The report revealed that almost a tenth of global electricity was generated by wind and solar power in 2020. Morocco and Kenya were clear leaders in the wind and solar sectors, already ahead of the world average. But, data from 2014 to 2019 shows that only a third of the rise in Africa’s electricity demand was met by renewable power sources, the rest of the rising demand was met by fossil gas.

The COVID-19 pandemic brought the world to a literal halt in 2020 and paused the global rising demand for electricity. The slight drop (-0.1%) in demand at the time was the first fall since 2009. The drop was still smaller than the impact of the financial crises though.

Wind and solar power showed resilient global growth in 2020 despite the pandemic, up by 15% versus 2019. The growth in wind and solar helped to push coal power to a record global fall of 4%.

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Source: EsiAfrica