Ernst & Young has released its quarterly Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Index report, with emerging regions like India and sub-Saharan Africa making an appearance due to their increases in growth and investment.
Blazing a trail was Egypt, the North African country made the top of the charts with a listing of ‘erupts’. The country has revived its efforts to generate at least 20% of its power from renewables by 2020, equivalent to around 12 GW and up from 12% currently. Following the introduction of relatively generous FITs in September 2014 for projects up to 50 MW, the Government launched a tender in November to procure 2.3 GW and 2GW of solar and wind power, respectively, via 20-year and 25-year PPAs. Ernst & Young said the clarity and speed of the process has been encouraging, with around 100 companies qualifying as approved bidders in January 2015 and solar more than 50% oversubscribed.
Ernst & Young noted that that sub-Saharan Africa is “experiencing unprecedented growth and is quickly establishing itself as a destination for foreign investment.†This can be attributed to in some small part to several things including the US’ Power Africa initiative and the decreasing cost of renewable energy and its ability to power rural populations. Although the report does say that the region’s power sector will require $1.2 trillion of new investment by 2040.