Online Reporter
Judith Phiri in Victoria Falls
The International Solar Alliance (ISA) has said Africa is ready and primed to transition from small-scale megawatt projects to large-scale gigawatt deployment, targeting at least 200 gigawatts of solar capacity over the next five years.
Speaking at the 8th Meeting of the ISA Regional Committee for the Africa Region Official Opening Ceremony in Victoria Falls on Wednesday, ISA Director General, Mr Ashish Khanna said it was time for Africa to transition from megawatt projects to gigawatt deployment.
“I think we believe Africa is ready to move from megawatts to gigawatts. Why do I say that? One, for the first time, working very closely for last 15 years in Africa, I find a political will and a
momentum which says that energy as an essential artery for access, reliable and affordable
energy is central to Africa’s growth,” he said.
‘Second, we now have all donors and all governments come together on a common shared platform of mission 300, which is led by government’s own national
nonprofits. This unification was not available in Africa.”
Thirdly, he said the technology of solar and storage continues
to come down while the world is spending US$1 trillion more because of oil prices and other issues.
Mr Khanna said all of this confirms that Africa is ready, while in terms of ISA, as a multilateral agency of Global South with 129 countries, they were committed on a vision of moving forward to action.
“You will see that we will be, over the next one and a half days, today, we will be leading three big initiatives. One is a continental clean energy plan for solarising Africa, which is not a report, but an implementation pathways for Africa,” he added.
“We will be signing an Africa solar facility that will operationalise a US$200 million fund for young
private entrepreneurs to invest in the use of renewable energy in Africa. We will be creating a
programme for these seven countries to begin with on solarisation of agriculture that can enable US$1 billion solar power.
He said they will be also talking about capacity building, energy storage, electric mobility, the progress on country partnership frameworks, and the role of digitisation and new technologies along with harmonisation of standards.
Mr Khanna said they were very excited and thank the Government and the people of Republic of Zimbabwe for their warmth and hospitality in welcoming them in Victoria Falls as well as all the member countries and partners for their continued partnership and cooperation.
