Africa's wind power divide

North Africa is a wind energy leader

Despite the news featured around the world that South Africa had implemented several wind farms to make the World Cup as renewable as possible, the continent of Africa still has a massive wind power divide... and it's South Africa that needs to up its game.

According to RenewableEnergyWorld.com, over 97 percent of the total installed wind power on the continent is installed in Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco. In 2008, 104MW of wind power was added on the continent, but Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco made up 99 percent of that total.

So why is South Africa lagging so far behind?

North Africa's wind market

One of the main reasons that North African countries have embraced wind power to such a degree is their proximity to Europe and the growing electrical grid interconnections between these regions.

With European countries having committed themselves to meeting CO2 emissions targets by 2020, more resources are being invested into clean energy projects and North Africa is a prime area for investment. Tunisia and Italy, for example, plan to integrate the electrical grid connections between the two countries so that once an underwater connection between the countries is complete, Tunisian clean energy companies will be able to export 200MW of energy to Italy.

As for wind, speeds and wind reliability in North African countries rank amongst the highest in the world, thus this part of the continent was always going to be a strong candidate to develop into a formidable wind power market.

Countries in the northern part of the country have also set themselves specific targets in terms of green energy.

• Egypt has set a renewable energy target of 20 percent of electricity generation by 2020
• Wind energy is expected to contribute 12 percent of this renewable energy
• Morocco has set its renewable energy target at 20 percent of electricity generation by 2012
• Tunisia has set a wind energy target of 180MW by 2011

Southern delays

While North Africa has had specific green energy goals, in the south it has only been since 2006 that energy-intensive industries were put under pressure to reduce electricity consumption and introduce energy efficiency measures.

The reliability of power supply to these industries was good and the cost of electricity lower than the global average, and it wasn't until 2008 when the country experienced power outages that a solution was needed.

However, unlike the North where wind is plentiful, it is less so in South Africa. As such, nuclear energy is more likely to play a role but wind energy will attempt to diversify supplies. Due to the relatively low costs and the short time it takes for a wind farm to be constructed, compared to other forms of renewable energy, the potential is there for South Africa to install over 300MW of turbine capacity over the next three years.

Whether it utilises any other forms of renewable power to compete with North Africa remains to be seen.

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