The African Renewable Energy Initiative was announced Tuesday at the United Nations climate summit in Paris. It will be hosted by the Abidjan, Ivory Coast-based African Development Bank, which will also act as a trustee, according to Alex Rugamba, director of energy, environment and climate change at the AfDB.
“We have enormous natural resources for clean energy in Africa,” Akinwumi Adesina, president of the African Development Bank, said in an Oct. 25 interview. “We have the potential to deploy 11 terawatts of solar energy, 350 gigawatts of hydro, 110 gigawatts of wind and 15 gigawatts of geothermal.”
The initiative is likely to develop geothermal projects in East Africa’s Rift Valley, wind in North Africa such as in Egypt and hydropower across the continent, Rugamba said. It doesn’t have an established pipeline yet.
France pledged to give more than €2 billion ($2.1 billion) over the next four years to the African Renewable Energy Initiative, French President Francois Hollande said Tuesday. Germany says it is mobilizing €3 billion, also up until 2020.
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