A renewables-based energy transition promises to deliver vast socio-economic benefits to countries across Africa, improving energy access, creating jobs and boosting energy security. To realise these benefits, African countries have an opportunity to leapfrog fossil fuel technologies to a more sustainable, climate-friendly power strategy aligned with the Paris Agreement and low-carbon growth.
The Renewable Energy Transition in Africa, jointly prepared by Germany's KfW Development Bank, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), and the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), explores how African countries can achieve universal energy access within the 2030 Agenda timeframe and identifies four areas of action:

Promote access to energy;
De-risk and promoting private sector investments;
Strengthen and modernise the grid;
Support systemic innovation.

The study also explores the transformational potential of the electricity sector in five Africa countries: Ghana, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Rwanda and South Africa. Specifically developed by IRENA, country case studies show the real-life applicability of power sector transformation and demonstrates how countries can:

Take advantage of the abundancy and competitiveness of renewables;
Align ambitious renewable targets in energy and climate plans;
Continue supporting the development of regional markets;
Leverage renewables and distributed energy resources to achieve universal energy access;
Develop tailored power sector transformation plans based on a systemic innovation approach;
Build on policy frameworks for just and inclusive transitions.

See the Country Studies
Green hydrogen
Hydrogen is a versatile energy carrier that can help tackle some of the critical challenges of the global energy transition.
It has diverse application potential, ranging from chemical and heavy industry to electricity storage and transport. The
production of green hydrogen is considered a Power-to-X technology. Such technologies convert electricity into synthe-
tic energy sources (IRENA, 2019d).
Currently, global hydrogen production facilities mainly use electricty from fossil fuels (grey hydrogen) and are respon-
sible for approximately 830 million tons of CO 2 emissions per year (6 per cent of global natural gas and 2 per cent of
global coal is used to produce hydrogen) (IEA, 2020).
For countries with high renewable energy potential, green hydrogen production represents a substantial opportunity. In
addition to replacing hydrogen production from polluting electricity sources, adopting this synthetic energy source may
also constitute a green alternative for certain applications in the transport sector and industry, and it can be deployed as
an energy storage alternative (by making use of systems with a high share of variable renewable energy – e.g., using
peak supply from solar generation during the day).
As part of its hydrogen strategy, the German government facilitates the creation of a green hydrogen sector in Morocco
by supporting the construction of a preindustrial-scale pilot plant for the production of green hydrogen (Government of
Germany, 2020) as well as the establishment of a research platform. The intention is to show whether and how green
hydrogen can be produced in a competitive, climate-neutral manner. Green hydrogen is also a key element in both
Europe’s Green New Deal and the Recovery Plan for Europe, announced in 2019 and 2020, respectively (EU, 20