Unlocking economic growth: Harnessing renewable energy to mitigate load shedding in Southern Africa
The continuous rise in load shedding has remained one of the significant challenges in Southern African countries, even though the region is endowed with vast renewable energy potentials. The peak period of load shedding amounts to more than a 10 GW supply-demand gap and results in the electricity g...
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Elsevier
2024-12-01
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| Series: | e-Prime: Advances in Electrical Engineering, Electronics and Energy |
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| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772671124004455 |
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| author | Oliver O. Apeh Nnamdi I. Nwulu |
| author_facet | Oliver O. Apeh Nnamdi I. Nwulu |
| author_sort | Oliver O. Apeh |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The continuous rise in load shedding has remained one of the significant challenges in Southern African countries, even though the region is endowed with vast renewable energy potentials. The peak period of load shedding amounts to more than a 10 GW supply-demand gap and results in the electricity grid being offline for massive swaths of the population for several hours daily. Consequently, many corporations and entrepreneurs who could not afford the high cost of backup generators have continued to suffer losses in their day-to-day business transactions. However, renewable energy is a potential technology that could improve the constant electricity supply for industries, commercial, residential, and business models. This study examines the impact and opportunities of renewable energy power supply on businesses in Southern Africa from 2000 to 2023, employing the time series and multilinear variant models. The results infer that reducing the length of electricity failures by 1 % would improve the incomes of the business owners by 0.16 million USD. Moreover, about 29 % of electricity in these regions is used in residential areas while industry shares about 54 %. South Africa records the highest average energy consumption rate of 3.64×105 TJ, accounting for 64 %, followed by Zimbabwe at 1.3 × 104 TJ, accounting for 53 % in the industry. Besides analysing the opportunities, likely policy considerations the government should attempt to allow the transition to renewable energy are also described. The study's implications comprise the need for the authorities to consider subsidising the cost of renewable energy technology. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-ee979020e5b94b18a35616be19e5ee14 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2772-6711 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-12-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | e-Prime: Advances in Electrical Engineering, Electronics and Energy |
| spelling | doaj-art-ee979020e5b94b18a35616be19e5ee142024-12-16T05:39:07ZengElseviere-Prime: Advances in Electrical Engineering, Electronics and Energy2772-67112024-12-0110100869Unlocking economic growth: Harnessing renewable energy to mitigate load shedding in Southern AfricaOliver O. Apeh0Nnamdi I. Nwulu1Corresponding author.; Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South AfricaFaculty of Engineering and Built Environment, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South AfricaThe continuous rise in load shedding has remained one of the significant challenges in Southern African countries, even though the region is endowed with vast renewable energy potentials. The peak period of load shedding amounts to more than a 10 GW supply-demand gap and results in the electricity grid being offline for massive swaths of the population for several hours daily. Consequently, many corporations and entrepreneurs who could not afford the high cost of backup generators have continued to suffer losses in their day-to-day business transactions. However, renewable energy is a potential technology that could improve the constant electricity supply for industries, commercial, residential, and business models. This study examines the impact and opportunities of renewable energy power supply on businesses in Southern Africa from 2000 to 2023, employing the time series and multilinear variant models. The results infer that reducing the length of electricity failures by 1 % would improve the incomes of the business owners by 0.16 million USD. Moreover, about 29 % of electricity in these regions is used in residential areas while industry shares about 54 %. South Africa records the highest average energy consumption rate of 3.64×105 TJ, accounting for 64 %, followed by Zimbabwe at 1.3 × 104 TJ, accounting for 53 % in the industry. Besides analysing the opportunities, likely policy considerations the government should attempt to allow the transition to renewable energy are also described. The study's implications comprise the need for the authorities to consider subsidising the cost of renewable energy technology.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772671124004455Renewable energyEconomic growthSmart business modelSouthern AfricaPower supply |
| spellingShingle | Oliver O. Apeh Nnamdi I. Nwulu Unlocking economic growth: Harnessing renewable energy to mitigate load shedding in Southern Africa e-Prime: Advances in Electrical Engineering, Electronics and Energy Renewable energy Economic growth Smart business model Southern Africa Power supply |
| title | Unlocking economic growth: Harnessing renewable energy to mitigate load shedding in Southern Africa |
| title_full | Unlocking economic growth: Harnessing renewable energy to mitigate load shedding in Southern Africa |
| title_fullStr | Unlocking economic growth: Harnessing renewable energy to mitigate load shedding in Southern Africa |
| title_full_unstemmed | Unlocking economic growth: Harnessing renewable energy to mitigate load shedding in Southern Africa |
| title_short | Unlocking economic growth: Harnessing renewable energy to mitigate load shedding in Southern Africa |
| title_sort | unlocking economic growth harnessing renewable energy to mitigate load shedding in southern africa |
| topic | Renewable energy Economic growth Smart business model Southern Africa Power supply |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772671124004455 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT oliveroapeh unlockingeconomicgrowthharnessingrenewableenergytomitigateloadsheddinginsouthernafrica AT nnamdiinwulu unlockingeconomicgrowthharnessingrenewableenergytomitigateloadsheddinginsouthernafrica |