Energy Efficiency In Africa Research Articles

Immediate and future challenges of using electric vehicles for promoting energy efficiency in Africa’s clean energy transition

Electric vehicle (EV) adoption in Africa is being driven by both structural and non-structural pressures. Hurdles to EV adoption as a tool for low carbon development are explained, drawing on interviews with energy specialists from Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia, South Africa, and Cameroon. Findings point to multiple-scale tensions between energy transition and access, between policy design and implementation, and between the spread of EVs and the power generation required to spur growth. Existing EV infrastructure is dependent on stranded assets from fossil fuel sources that are about to be abandoned for Africa’s power supply. Scaling up renewable energy systems will be more efficient if operational costs for fossil fuel infrastructure are switched to capital costs. This calls for a fresh business strategy designed to address Africa's desire to ensure energy efficiency that will spur the acceptance of EVs, while also deploying renewable energy to reach global climate goals. By using a combination of market and policy instruments, a new regulatory framework, accessible financing, and stronger price signals can help phase out aging fossil fuel infrastructure and spark an efficiency revolution.

The Challenges and Opportunities of Energy Transition across Africa

The provision of energy infrastructure is essential for economic growth, social cohesion, and environmental sustainability. This paper served to evaluate the challenges associated with energy development and transition across the African continent and proffer opportunities for sustainable transition. Extensive use of documents, official data and statistics on different aspects of the African society was employed for this study. Exploratory documentary research materials, extant literature, publications, journals and articles on the current status of energy generation and delivery in Africa, the concept of renewable energy pathways, the need for energy transitions and the major strategies in place in Africa and around the world were important study areas for this work. Exploratory research method and systematic review approach were used to study the energy transition techniques, challenges and opportunities across Africa. Important research points were the concept of renewable energy pathways, the need for energy transitions, the major strategies in place in Africa and around the world to meet with the zero-carbon emission strategies of 2050, the future directions in energy provision—renewable energy development, economic diversification and energy-efficiency in Africa and the effects of energy transition on the social, political, economic and cultural spheres across Africa. Results obtained showed that energy transition in Africa is rapidly growing, though differently across the region, following huge investments made into the renewable energy sector, legislations and policies on the fossil fuel usage and carbon emission and introduction of better and more efficient systems. Nevertheless, the challenges reported in this studying plaguing the African energy transition come in five spheres: social, political, economic, technological and cultural. These challenges seem to be ancient, ubiquitous and multidimensional. Harnessing the opportunities in renewable energy will surely boost the economy of the different case study countries. A willing socio-political disposition towards renewable energy sources, increased investment plan for cleaner energy, reduced emphasis on fossil fuels and private-public sector collaboration will surely be giant steps to tapping into the numerous benefits of renewable energy sources. Energy transition in African countries can only be achieved under the auspices of a strong political will, social drive, cultural motivation and technological inclination towards a sustainable transition to cleaner renewable energy sources and less focus on fossil fuels.

The impact of forestation and renewable energy utilisation on environmental efficiency in Africa

Achieving carbon neutrality is a tedious challenge confronting African countries that have witnessed mounting environmental degradation. Renewable energy consumption (REC) and forestation play a critical role in dealing with the situation. Therefore, to address this concern, this study assesses the dynamic energy or environmental efficiency of 43 sampled African countries by proffering a new dynamic meta-frontier DEA model from 2010 to 2018. The bootstrap truncation regression model investigates the influence of forestation and REC on environmental efficiency in Africa. The dynamic environmental efficiency of the 43 concerned African countries is low (0.59), indicating vast room for improvement. The heterogeneity of dynamic environmental efficiency across the income groups is evident. The upper-middle-income group (UMIG) had the best performance, followed by the low-middle-income group (LMIG) and the low-income group (LIG). The technology gap ratio also confirmed the existence of a huge gap across the income groups in Africa. The bootstrap truncation regression results confirmed a U-shaped relationship between economic growth and dynamic environmental efficiency in Africa. Forestation and REC positively correlate to dynamic CO2 emission and energy efficiency in Africa. In contrast, financial development is negatively associated with CO2 emissions and Africa’s energy efficiency. The study’s findings will aid the sampled African countries in their quest to attain carbon neutrality, thereby promoting sustainability on the African continent.

Foreign direct investment and inclusive green growth in Africa: Energy efficiency contingencies and thresholds

Despite the growing number of empirical studies on foreign direct investment (FDI) and energy efficiency (EE) as they relate to green growth, there remains an empirical research gap with respect to whether EE can engender positive synergy with FDI to foster inclusive green growth (IGG) in Africa. Also, little has been done to show the IGG gains from improving EE in both the short and long terms. Thus, this paper investigates whether EE interacts with FDI to foster IGG in Africa. According to our findings, which are based on 23 African countries and the dynamic GMM estimator, FDI hampers IGG in Africa, while EE fosters IGG. Notably, in the presence of EE, the IGG-deteriorating effect of FDI is reduced. Additional evidence by way of threshold analysis indicates that, improving EE in Africa generates positive sustainable development gains in both the short and long terms. This study suggests that, a country's drive to attract FDI needs to be accompanied by appropriate policy options to promote energy efficiency.

Barriers to the institutionalization of industrial energy efficiency in Africa: A case study from Uganda

AbstractUganda has ambitions to become a middle‐income country by 2040. Achieving this goal would require an economic transformation that is led and aided by industrialization. Economic transformation and industrialization also require efficient utilization of energy, including electricity. The cost of electricity in Uganda is not cheap; thus, there is an incentive for industries and policymakers to invest in energy efficiency measures. The fact that energy efficiency could contribute to climate and other social policy objectives is also an added advantage. Since the mid‐2000s, following a power crisis, the Government of Uganda has taken several initiatives to promote energy efficiency within the industrial sector. However, although targeted interventions delivered demonstrable gains, efforts to institutionalize industrial energy efficiency remains a challenge. In this article, we use institutional theory and the political economy approach to explore why institutionalization has been difficult to achieve in Uganda. The article pays attention to the underlying political and economic processes to observe the factors that contribute to the non‐institutionalized status. The article argues the need to build a robust regulatory framework with a deliberate intent to broaden consensus around a shared understanding of the trade‐offs and benefits associated with energy efficiency.This article is categorized under: Policy and Economics > Regional and International Strategies Sustainable Energy > Energy Efficiency Sustainable Development > Emerging Economies

Energy efficiency and financial depth nexus revisited: does the choice of instrumental variable and measure of financial depth matter?

This study examines the effect of finance on energy efficiency in Africa, addressing two fundamental empirical issues in the energy-finance literature: (1) simultaneous modelling of efficiency estimates and determinants of efficiency and (2) two-way endogeneity problem with income and financial depth. I apply the endogenous stochastic frontier method. Life expectancy at birth instruments for income while religion, latitude of capital city and legal system origin instrument for financial depth. Estimated efficiency in electricity consumption is between 9 and 16%, which is quite low, suggesting greater potential to improve electricity consumption efficiency. Without considering the level of development, the result shows that finding a statistically significant negative effect of financial depth on energy inefficiency depends on the choice of instrument and not the indicator of financial depth. Using country latitude and legal system origin as instruments produce robust statistically significant negative effect for all the indicators of financial depth, but high monetisation of the economy and supply of loanable funds exert the greatest effect, recommending between 0.069 and 0.096% reduction in inefficiency for every 1% increase in these indicators. However, both the choice of instruments and indicator of financial depth matter, when I consider income level. I discuss the policy implications.

Measuring Dynamic Energy Efficiency in Africa: A Slack‐Based DEA Approach

AbstractIn the quest for economic and social prosperity, countries all over the world are constantly engaged in energy consumption to propel development. The utilization of energy emits dangerous greenhouse gases which have adverse impact on human health and the entire ecosystem. Finding the trade‐off that exists between economic growth and environmental protection is essential nowadays. Previous energy efficiency studies in Africa have focused on static efficiency and ignoring dynamic implications of crossover factors in productivity. Those studies in Africa have also failed to capture energy efficiency trends and patterns over time. Therefore, the current study applies the dynamic slack‐based measure (DSBM) in a data envelopment analysis (DEA) framework to assess the dynamic energy efficiency of 25 sampled African economies from 2007 to 2014 by adopting energy stock as carryover factors. Further, the study investigates the inputs, output, and carryover factors inefficiency in the model to identify the potential areas where inefficiencies occurred. The empirical results suggest that these selected African countries are far from being energy efficient (0.519). Therefore, both adjustments and projections on the inputs, output, and carryover variables should be taken into account, to improve efficiency. Finally, useful suggestions for energy efficiency improvement are further discussed based on the empirical results.

ENERGY PRICES, INCOME AND ELECTRICITY CONSUMPTION IN AFRICA: THE ROLE OF TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION

In this paper, we examine an extended model of the determinants of electricity consumption to include the effect of technological innovation represented by the number of patent and trademark registered. The study focused on 35 African countries from 2009 to 2018 based on availability of records on patent and trademark registration. Both the one and two-step system generalized method of moments were explored to estimate the empirical model. The models were estimated in five different categories to properly account for the behaviour of technological innovation and other determinants of electricity consumption. It was revealed that technological innovation has an insignificant effect on electricity consumption in Africa. However, other variables of interest affected electricity consumption in diverse ways; while per capita income and population growth have positive and significant effect on electricity consumption, energy price and FDI inflows exhibit a negative and significant effect on electricity consumption. The results suggest that technological innovation has not promoted energy efficiency in Africa possibly due to weak innovative capabilities of African countries. Hence government effort should be geared towards improving innovative technology in the region.Keywords: Technological Innovation, Energy price, Electricity consumption, GDP per capita, System Generalized Method of MomentsJEL Classifications: O30, O34, P18, Q20DOI: https://doi.org/10.32479/ijeep.9494

Total factor energy efficiency and economic development in Africa

This paper presents an energy efficiency assessment of 46 African countries and analyzes possible bidirectional relationship between energy efficiency and economic development within a three-stage framework. In the first stage, energy efficiency is measured within a total factor framework using the slack-based measure with undesirable output and sub-regional comparisons are done. The second stage assesses the determinants of energy efficiency in Africa by way of a bootstrapped truncated regression. The third stage tests the reverse causal relationship between energy efficiency and economic development using 2-stage least squares. The results showed African countries to be on average, 56% energy efficient within the study period. Other African sub-regions could adopt the energy efficiency policies of North Africa as benchmark to improve energy efficiency. Economic development and technological progress are found to have significant positive effects on energy efficiency of African countries, while higher energy prices lead to higher inefficiency. Also, a bi-causal relationship is found to exist between total factor energy efficiency and economic development, giving support to the concept of sustainable development and confirming the International Energy Agency’s assertion on the positive macroeconomic impacts of energy efficiency. African countries are therefore, encouraged to invest in energy efficiency technologies and policies to drive sustainable economic development.

Energy Efficiency Improvement Assessment in Africa: An Integrated Dynamic DEA Approach

In Africa, energy plays an important role in the processes of economic and sustainable development. However, inefficiency such as mismanagement of resources constrains productivity. Prior energy efficiency studies in Africa have failed to provide the paths through which energy efficiency improvement can be achieved. The current study aims to assess energy efficiency improvement among 25 selected countries in Africa. First, the dynamic slack-based measure (DSBM) data envelopment analysis (DEA) model is applied to gauge the efficiency measurement. Further, the Malmquist productivity index (MPI) is employed to investigate the energy efficiency improvement during 2006–2014. Empirically, the results from the dynamic slack-based measure (DSBM) model show that energy efficiency in Africa is generally low. Also, the findings from the MPI suggest there is no significant improvement in energy efficiency in Africa. Based on the estimated results, some energy efficiency improvement strategies are further proposed for sample countries in Africa.

An evaluation of energy efficiency performances in Africa under heterogeneous technologies

This study applied a parametric-based approach to evaluate energy efficiency performances of 22 African countries assuming heterogeneity in the production technologies from 1988 to 2014. Using the Akaike Information Criterion, the optimal number of classes was chosen to be 2, which suggests a dual isoquant (technology) case. The energy demand frontier determinants revealed that price, income, the structure of output, and urbanization play significant roles in explaining total energy consumption with some evidence of heterogeneity in their effects across classes. The mean estimated energy efficiency for the pooled sample is 59%. The class 1 members (with a mean energy efficiency score of 62%) performed better than class 2 members (with a mean energy efficiency score of 58%). Both classes showed evidence of different group leaders in energy efficiency performance. In class 1, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Zambia emerged as the best performing economies with mean energy efficiency scores of 88%, 73%, and 66%, respectively. In class 2, Algeria and Botswana emerged as the best performing economies with a mean energy efficiency value of 71%. The performances of the remaining countries in both classes are low. In both classes, members seem to make a consistent progress, albeit at a slower pace, in energy efficiency improvements except in Senegal where a cyclical trend was detected. There is a significant scope for improvement in energy efficiency in Africa. This suggests that Africa should pay serious attention to energy efficiency improvements.

Estimate of transient and persistent energy efficiency in Africa: A stochastic frontier approach

This article identifies the sources and determines the convergence and causes of energy efficiency in Africa. In terms of contribution, it provides the first cross-country evidence. This study applies the stochastic fixed effect, true fixed effect and the Kumbhakar-Heshmati (K-H) models using a panel data of 22 countries for the period 1988–2014. The result reveals that: (1) the problem of energy efficiency in Africa is more structural in nature. Removing transient inefficiency and minimizing persistent inefficiency will save 5.7% and 84% of total energy consumption, respectively. Thus, energy security and carbon emissions will benefit more from policies aimed at the long-term than the short-term; (2) overall energy efficiency is low and hyoid in nature. While it declined from 1988 to 2006, the trend has reversed after 2006; (3) economic growth, urbanization and population density promote efficiency but price, foreign direct inflows and service and industry output reduce it; (4) energy efficiency convergence is conditional in nature, driven by country-specific factors such as the level of technology; (5) energy intensity is not a good measure of energy efficiency and should not be used as a policy indicator for energy efficiency enhancement.

Promoting renewable energy and energy efficiency in Africa: a framework to evaluate employment generation and cost effectiveness

The ongoing debate over the cost-effectiveness of renewable energy (RE) and energy efficiency (EE) deployment often hinges on the current cost of incumbent fossil-fuel technologies versus the long-term benefit of clean energy alternatives. This debate is often focused on mature or ‘industrialized’ economies and externalities such as job creation. In many ways, however, the situation in developing economies is at least as or even more interesting due to the generally faster current rate of economic growth and of infrastructure deployment. On the one hand, RE and EE could help decarbonize economies in developing countries, but on the other hand, higher upfront costs of RE and EE could hamper short-term growth. The methodology developed in this paper confirms the existence of this trade-off for some scenarios, yet at the same time provides considerable evidence about the positive impact of EE and RE from a job creation and employment perspective. By extending and adopting a methodology for Africa designed to calculate employment from electricity generation in the U.S., this study finds that energy savings and the conversion of the electricity supply mix to renewable energy generates employment compared to a reference scenario. It also concludes that the costs per additional job created tend to decrease with increasing levels of both EE adoption and RE shares.

Promoting Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency in Africa: A Framework to Evaluate Employment Generation and Cost-Effectiveness

The ongoing debate over the cost-effectiveness of renewable energy (RE) and energy efficiency (EE) deployment often hinges on the current cost of incumbent fossil-fuel technologies versus the long-term benefit of clean energy alternatives. This debate is often focused on mature or ‘industrialized’ economies and externalities such as job creation. In many ways, however, the situation in developing economies is at least as or even more interesting due to the generally faster current rate of economic growth and of infrastructure deployment. On the one hand, RE and EE could help decarbonize economies in developing countries, but on the other hand, higher upfront costs of RE and EE could hamper short-term growth. The methodology developed in this paper confirms the existence of this trade-off for some scenarios, yet at the same time provides considerable evidence about the positive impact of EE and RE from a job creation and employment perspective. By extending and adopting a methodology for Africa designed to calculate employment from electricity generation in the U.S., this study finds that energy savings and the conversion of the electricity supply mix to renewable energy generates employment compared to a reference scenario. It also concludes that the costs per additional job created tend to decrease with increasing levels of both EE adoption and RE shares.

The Study on Energy Efficiency in Africa

This paper is dedicated to explore the dynamic performance of energy efficiency in Africa, with panel data in country level, taking energy yield, power consumption, electricity transmission and distribution losses into account, the paper employ stochastic frontier mode,highlighting a dummy variable in energy output in terms of net imports of energy and power, which minify the deviation of estimated variables. The results show that returns of scale did not appear in energy and power industry in Africa, electricity transmission and distribution losses contribute most to GDP per unit of energy. In country level, Republic of Congo and Botswana suggest an obvious energy efficiency advantage. Energy efficiency in Mozambique and Democratic Republic of Congo are not very satisfying during the studying year