Renewable Energy World Africa

Renewable Energy World Africa will be launched alongside POWER-GEN Africa 2012 on 6-8 November 2012, at the Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg, South Africa, with a dedicated conference stream featuring three days of presentations and debate about the strategic challenges and technical solutions for expanding renewable energy power generation across sub-Saharan Africa.

Exhibitors will have a dedicated Renewable Energy World Africa pavilion on the show floor which will be a focus of expertise and global technological excellence in the green energy sector.

Countries in sub-Saharan Africa today face a collective power deficit with the prospect of fast growing future demand. Renewable power generation offers huge potential to help close this gap in a continent with abundant renewable resources and space. With technology advancing quickly and manufacturing costs lowering, renewable power generation will play a big role in a new energy infrastructure in Africa offering solutions in both rural distributed applications and large-scale projects such as hydropower, CSP, wind and biomass.

“We are today, on the verge of exponential growth in the broader renewable energy industry”, says Pancho Ndebele, Chair of the South African Solar Thermal Industry Association

Africa is participating in the fast emerging renewable energy market, with investment in alternative energy source, growing from $750 million in 2004 to $3.6 billion in 2011.

South Africa  has recently announced its rules about renewable energy and plans to install 8400 MW of solar photovoltaic over the next 20 years, which  together with another 1000 MW of concentrated solar power technology, theoretically will provide in excess of 60,000 jobs. South Africa is holding five tenders to allocate 3725 MW valued around $12 billion over the next two years. By 2030, the country aims to lift renewable sources to 8% of the energy mix, up from less than 1% now.