Measures to promote renewable energy for electricity generation in Algeria

Algeria has enormous renewable energy potential. However, fossil fuels remain the main electricity generation source, and the country is the third largest CO2 emitter in Africa. Algeria is also particularly vulnerable to climate change. Therefore, a set of actions related to energy, forests, industry and waste sectors have been programmed, over the period 2015–2030, and the government action program has given priority to promote renewable energy. In this sense, Algeria is committed to significantly promote investment in renewable energy, during the period 2020–2030. Thus by 2030, renewable electricity production capacity will achieve 22,000 MW, representing 27% of total electricity generation. This paper analyzes the electricity generation measures implemented in Algeria to reach the required energy mix, the legislative framework, financial aid, the feed-in tariff system, the tax incentives, and the tender and auctions undertaken. The analyses reveal that, although the electricity price premium policy has not been revoked, the newly enacted tender scheme is designed to become the standard procedure for launching renewable energy projects in Algeria in the coming years

Residential electricity consumption and economic growth in Algeria

Within the framework of the COP21 (Conference of the Parties) agreement, Algeria submitted its Intended Nationally Determined Contribution pledging to reduce carbon emissions by at least 7% by 2030. However, it will be a difficult task to reach this target as total final energy consumption has increased 32% from 2010 to 2014, with the major energy increases being related to electricity use in the residential sector. In this context, the relationship between residential electricity consumption and income is analyzed for Algeria in the period 1970–2013, by estimating a residential electricity consumption per capita demand function which depends on GDP per capita, its squared and cubed terms, the electricity prices, and the goods and services imports. An extended Autoregressive Distributed Lag model (ARDL) was adopted to consider the different growth patterns registered in the evolution of GDP. The estimate results show that the relationships between electricity use and GDP (in per capita terms) present an inverted N-shape, with the second turning point having been reached. Therefore, promoting growth in Algeria could be convenient to reduce the electricity consumption, as a higher income level may allow the use of more efficient appliances. Additionally, renewable energies may be adequate to increase the electricity production in order to cover the increasing residential demand.Junta de Andalucía proyecto SEJ-132Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad de España, Cátedra de Economía de la Energía y del Medio Ambiente (Cátedra de Energía y Economía Ambiental) ECO2014-56399-

Working Paper 43 - Energy Sector Development in Africa

The important and wide-ranging role of energy in the development process is well known andit needs no retelling here. However, suffice it to state that there is a strong feedback relationshipbetween the energy sector and the national economy. Energy demand, supply and pricing haveenormous impact on social and economic development and the living standards and overall qualityof life of the population. On the other hand the economic structure and the changes in that structureas well as the prevailing macroeconomic conditions are key determinants of energy demand andsupply. Furthermore, energy affects environmental quality through deforestation associated withunsustainable biomass energy dependence and greenhouse gas emission from fossil fuel use resultingin global warming.Prior to 1973, the rate at which energy consumption increased closely followed the rate atwhich the economy expanded. Rapid economic growth and steadily rising income and higher livingstandards combined with the long term declining trend in energy prices to produce rapidly risingglobal energy demand. Until the emergence of the high cost energy era in the post 1973 era,relatively cheap and abundant energy was a key feature of rapid industrialization and economicprogress. Indeed, commercial energy use remains a key factor in human development. This is despitethe global de-coupling of energy demand-economic growth relationship in the post – 1970 period,triggered by the onset of a new era of more expensive energy associated with the quadrupling of oilprice increases between 1973 and 1974, and further price escalation in 1979 and 1980.Beyond the low level of energy consumption per capita, and unsustainable over-dependenceon bio-mass (wood-fuel), Africa is faced with enormous problems in the quest for sustainableenergy development. For the purpose of addressing these problems effectively, we can summarizethe fundamental energy question facing Africa as: providing and maintaining widespread access ofthe population to reliable and affordable supplies of environmentally cleaner energy to meet therequirements of rapid economic growth and improved living standards. Two sets of factors complicatethe solutions to this critical question. First is the difficult initial energy and economic conditions inmuch of the region. These are broadly defined by the significant deterioration in energy infrastructure,inadequate and unreliable supply of commercial energy to end users despite the enormous untappedenergy resources in the region, and significant inefficiency in energy use. The energy constraints havebeen exacerbated by difficult domestic economic and social conditions. These are defined broadly by, low per capita income, high incidence of poverty, weak economic growth and growth collapsein several cases, stagnating or declining investment (energy inclusive) and weak though improvingdomestic macroeconomic conditions, social conflict and weak governance in public enterprises incharge of energy. Second, there is the global pressure driven by sustainable human development totackle the increasingly significant adverse local, regional and global environmental impact of energysector development. This will accelerate the demand for cleaner energy and the associated energyresource development. The search for a sustainable energy sector development will therefore remainan important issue in Africa as well as in the rest of the world. The paper presents a broad butsystematic discussion of the main issues concerning sustainable energy development in Africa.The structure of the paper is as follows. In section 2 the socio-economic context of theproblem is discussed. In section 3 we present an overview of the developments in the energy sectorin the post 1970 period with emphasis on the sub-regional perspective. This is followed by ananalysis of the constraints to energy sector development in section 4. The paper explores some ofthe key issues and strategies for achieving the goal of sustainable energy development in Africa insection 5. The conclusions are presented in section 6.

UK energy security: challenges, threats and solutions

Over the last few decades, the debate about 'Peak Oil' became increasingly common and frustrating to governments, oil companies and individuals. Also in the last decade or so, some unusual events took places, which have raised the concern about the future of energy resources. i These events and the peak oil debate lead policy makers, particularly in the industrialised countries, to consider what is known today as 'Energy Security'. The UK is one of these countries that fears the unknown future should petroleum resources worldwide become scarce or vanish. After the dwindling of the North Sea production, the UK found itself on the brink of losing its energy self-sufficiency (Macalister, 2010). This paper sets the following questions: has the UK's oil and gas production peaked yet? If so, does the UK have a serious energy security problem? and if so, how this problem may be solved and what are the possible short, medium and long-term solutions for such a concern? In answering these questions, the paper discusses the concerns and challenges to the UK energy security and brings about the Government plans for tackling these concerns. In other words, the paper seeks to uncover the UK energy security position and shed light on any possible challenges and threats to this position. It also highlights the solutions to the energy security concern. Our analysis is based on quantitative data extracted from Governmental and industrial sources. It is found that the UK does not experience an energy security problem on the short to medium-term, but it may suffer energy insecurity on the longer-term

Euro-Mediterranean Integration and Cooperation: Prospects and Challenges

An overview of current institutional cooperation, economic conditions and challenges in the Mediterranean region.Mediterranean, Europe, Economic conditions, institutional cooperation

An Analysis of North Africa\u27s Capacity to Achieve Renewable Energy Development

Although blessed with abundant solar and wind energies, North Africa has yet to maximise its socioeconomic gain from tapping these resources. In view of North African demographic and middle class expansion, energy demand is set to increase. Tapping renewable energy sources will not only address these problems, but also will be an impetus to the faltering socioeconomic dynamic the region needs to boost sustainable development to benefit from globalisation. However, with bureaucratic-laden institutions and corruptions hindering the private sector from flourishing, governments are compelled to mobilise public finances to cover the lack of private investments in renewable energy projects. Increasing investments in education and R&D to meet skills demand for renewable energy projects that continues to lag behind foreign contents as the primary input. Skills mismatch between the labour force and technology intensive renewable energy industry is a result of the people\u27s aspiration and desire to work for the government shaped by post-independence policies. The challenge for North Africa policy makers is beyond correcting institutional deficiencies to transform its business environment, but also to influence change in the perception and attitude of the public

Barriers to the adoption of energy efficiency measures in Mostaganem, Algeria.

The residential sector of Algeria consumes 29% of the total energy consumption. In order to reduce and address this consumption along with the challenges of climate change, the Algerian public policy considers energy efficiency investment measures (EEIMs) in the residential sector as a key factor. However, despite the recommendations and incitement measures from the government, the adoption of EEIMs of Algerian homeowners is too low. In 2018, EEIMs have been implemented in 4,000 houses. This number represents only 4% of the government's target which is the implementation of EEIMs in 100,000 houses per year. The present article, accordingly, attempts to explore the barriers to the adoption of EEIMs. To this effect, a questionnaire survey with 150 randomly selected Algerian single-family homeowners in Mostaganem area was used for the study. It was found that the five greatest barriers to the adoption of EEIMs were: (1) the lack of subsidies and rebates on energy efficient equipment, (2) the high initial prices of energy efficient equipment, (3) the lack of techniques and tools for the estimation of saved energy, (4) the unwillingness to borrow money and (5) the difficulty of identifying, procuring, installing, operating and maintaining energy efficiency measures. The principal component analysis categorised 16 barriers around four components: (1) “Financial” barriers, (2) “Technological” barriers, (3) “Lack of time and knowledge” barriers and (4) “Attitude towards energy efficiency improvements” barriers. Finally, the multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) analysis has shown that the perception of barriers to the adoption of EEIMs also differs in accordance with certain personal characteristics of the homeowner

De-risking investment into concentrated solar power in North Africa: Impacts on the costs of electricity generation

A low-carbon energy transition on the basis of renewable energy sources (RES) is of crucial importance to solve the interlinked global challenges of climate change and energy security. However, large-scale deployment of RES requires substantial investments, including the participation of private capital. Scientific evidence shows that the economic feasibility of a RES project hinges on the availability of affordable project financing, which itself depends on risk perceptions by private investors. Since financing costs tend to be particularly high for capital-intensive RES projects and in developing countries, we investigate the impacts of addressing these perceived risks on electricity prices from semi-dispatchable concentrated solar power (CSP) in four North African countries. By employing a levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) model we find that comprehensively de-risking CSP investments leads to a 39% reduction in the mean LCOE from CSP. However, this reduction is still not sufficient to achieve economic competitiveness of CSP with highly subsidized conventional electricity from fossil fuels in North Africa. Hence, our results suggest that de-risking reflects an important strategy to foster the deployment of CSP in North Africa but additional measures to support RES, such as reconsidering fossil fuel subsidies, will be needed