Renewable energy could be the key to growing power demands on the African continent, according to a new statement from the International Energy Agency. Sub-Saharan Africa could, in fact, harvest enough renewable energy to meet its rising demands as soon as 2040, the agency says.
Energy demands for the region are expected to increase by 80 percent by 2040, but the IEA says that with the appropriate investment in wind, solar and hydropower infrastructure that demand could be easily met:
"Economic and social development in sub-Saharan Africa hinges critically on fixing the energy sector," said IEA chief economist Fatih Birol. "The payoff can be huge; with each additional dollar invested in the power sector boosting the overall economy by $15."
Moves towards greater solar energy harvesting are already underway in South Africa, the continent's largest solar producer. That country is already on pace to increase they harvesting capacity from 30 megawatts to roughly 500MW by the end of 2014, according to businessgreen.com.
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