Publication - Planning Sustainable Electricity Solutions for Refugee Settlements in Sub-Saharan Africa

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Title

Planning Sustainable Electricity Solutions for Refugee Settlements in Sub-Saharan Africa

Publisher

Nature Energy

Author

Duccio Baldi , Magda Moner-Girona , Elena Fumagalli, Fernando Fahl 

Published in

May 2022

Abstract

An inadequate understanding of the energy needs of forcibly displaced populations is one of the main obstacles in providing sustainable and reliable energy to refugees and their host communities. Here, we provide a first-order assessment of the main factors determining the decision to deploy fully renewable mini-grids in almost 300 refugee settlements in sub-Saharan Africa. Using an energy assessment survey and publicly available traditional and earth observation data, we estimate a total electricity demand of 154 GWh yr–1. This figure includes lighting, air circulation and phone charging for 1.15 million households and the estimated demand of almost 59,000 microbusinesses and around 7,000 institutional loads. Using a set of techno-economic modelling tools, we thus compute a corresponding upper-bound total up-front cost of providing electricity access of just over US$1 billion. Deploying solar photovoltaic mini-grids instead of diesel implies avoiding greenhouse gas emissions for 2.86 MtCO2e over 20 years.

URL

link to the document

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PIE Grant (Grid Portal)?

• Energy Access

• Humanitarian Energy

• Mini-grid

• Solar

• Other