In the night time, most of the western world is being lid up by light, whereas a great part of the African continent is sleeping in darkness. By July 2020, 46 wind turbines from the Danish company Vestas are supposed to help change this, producing energy that corresponds to 15 percent of Senegal’s current energy supply.

Denmark’s Export Credit Agency (EKF) has invested EUR 122 million in the project. The project will provide approximately 2 million households with electricity as well as contribute to the prevention of the frequent power cuts, which residents in the capital city Dakar have been tormented by.

Today, energy investments in Africa are perceived as a great risk for many investors, but the onshore wind turbines have proved to be competitive with fossil fuels in terms of costs, making the transition to renewable energy easier and creating possibilities for the Danish wind export. Together with another large wind farm in Kenya, Vesta’s wind farm in Senegal is contributing to decrease the risk for investors

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 7
It is estimated that around 1 billion people are living without access to electricity around the globe. This is partly the reason why the United Nations SDG 7 is about creating sustainable energy supply to the poorest people in the world before 2030. In this context, several African countries have developed ambitious energy strategies to ensure that the energy will come from renewable sources.

However, in spite of the great potential, in 2016 only 1 percent of Africa’s energy came from renewable energy sources. Instead, the countries are using fossil fuel power stations in order to cover their energy demand, but the capacity is far from enough.

According to a research by the market research company, Make, it is expected that by 2027, wind turbines with a total capacity of 30 gigawatt will be installed. This is a great opportunity for Danish companies, and a huge improvement compared to the 5 gigawatt that was installed in 2017. The countries leading within renewable energy in the region are primarily South Africa, Morocco, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya and Tunisia. However, many more countries have excellent wind conditions for implementing wind turbines, according to EKF.

-Source: Energy Supply (in Danish)