A prospective review of renewable energy developments in Ethiopia

Abstract

Ethiopia has a vast renewable energy potential in the context of hydro, wind, solar, and geothermal energies. The unsustainable use of biomass coupled with drought has caused a paradigm shift towards wind, geothermal, and solar energies. There have been significant strides by the Government of Ethiopia to actualize these potentials in the context of developing massive projects in these aforementioned areas with the private business sector in the goal of jettisoning the industrial base of Ethiopia in conjunction with increasing the installed power capacity from 4,300 MW to 17,346 MW by 2020. The major challenge still lies in assessing the comprehensive renewable energy resource potential of Ethiopia including the lack of local content development in the context of establishing an industrial base. There have been notable initiatives by the Government of Ethiopia to adhere to the Paris Climate Accord in conjunction with the Green Growth framework and Sustainability Development Goals. However, the top down approach of grand targets to the various regions is not the pragmatic approach to solving the Achilles heel of energy poverty. A more plausible approach is from the bottom up, whereby energy frameworks and policies are generated by conducting a needs assessment of a specified region. The appropriate technology concept needs to be reflected in the innovation aspects of renewable energy technologies. There has to be a framework of translating invention to innovation by actualizing the tripartite structure of Government, Academia, and Industry.