This Africa Power Vision (APV) is a continent-wide, long-term vision to increase access to reliable and affordable energy for Africans. It seeks to achieve agreement among African leaders as to which energy projects to prioritize for accelerated implementation. Recognizing the importance of energy in driving socio-economic development, it aims to (i) prioritize the implementation of energy infrastructure projects on the continent; (ii) promote regional economic integration in order to close Africa’s massive infrastructure gap. The targeted Vision is that of harnessing all African energy resources to ensure access to modern energy for all African households, businesses and industries by developing efficient, reliable, cost-effective and environmentally friendly energy infrastructure resulting in poverty eradication and vigorous sustainable development of the continent. The APV has a five-pillar strategy. Taken together, these pillars will drive the continent’s economic growth while improving the quality of life for all Africans. The pillars are (1) leverage domestic energy resources with a focus on the most cost effective and cleaner sources taking into consideration affordability and in view of climate change; (2) drive GDP growth with electrification, achieving an 80% residential electrification rate by 2040 and 90% for industry / business, also implementing off-grid solutions; (3) scale up through effective and efficient regional integration to provide scale and speed up energy delivery; (4) run assets efficiently and investing in operations and maintenance to minimize generation, transmission, distribution, and collection losses; (5) mobilize all available resources, drawing on domestic resources, fellow African countries and multilateral partners, while attracting and promoting the private sector, as well as driving collaboration with the global partners. Envisaged measures to protect the environment are (i) projects that could cause environmental damage must have and execute plans to mitigate and reverse any such short-term adverse impacts; (ii) it has to be taken into account the local biodiversity sensitivity and the emissions impact of the projects.
2015-01-01