Governments Policies, Strategies, and Action Plans Promoting Renewable Energy in Angola
A country in the sub-Saharan region of the African continent, Angola is a fast-growing economy. Over three decades of war have damaged significant infrastructures in the country, and a large portion of the population has been displaced. Yet the country is back on its foot and is moving forward towards a developed nation.
The country’s economy is mostly dependent on the exportation of oil. However, Angola has started exploring the renewable energy reserves that it has. It has abundant natural resources that hold tremendous potential for energy generation that can lead to the sustainable development of the nation.
The objective of electrification set by the government has resulted in a shift of focus from the oil sector to the exploration and development of renewable energy sources. The plan is primarily focused on the three sources, solar energy, wind power, and hydropower, with hydropower being the top priority. The government targets to have a capacity of 55 GW of solar power, 18 GW of hydropower, and 3 GW of wind power.
2025 Angola Long Term Energy Plan
With the focus shifted to renewable energy, the government launched the 2025 Energy Plan in 2019 to implement the ideas and strategies. This is a plan that includes the previous 2013-2017 Action plan for energy and policies for making electricity accessible to at least 60% of Angola’s population.
The strategy is about the implementation of the policy for the complete development of renewable energy between 2015-2025. The initiative has been taken to take the country at a level where it can globally compete in the power industry with other major countries. It is to make Angola a developed country and self-sustainable in terms of power generation without causing any harm to the environment or human health.
What are the highlighted goals of this plan?
2025 Angola Energy Plan has two primary objectives and multiple policies for its fulfillment. Here are the two most important goals:
- To increase the rate of electrification by at least 60% by the year 2025, where 70% of electricity will be generated from renewable energy sources.
- To increase the production capacity of renewable energy by 9.9 MW in 2025. This will include 66% of hydropower, 19% natural gases, 8% of other renewable energies, and 7% of thermal power.
The strategy contributes to the battle of the world against drastic climatic changes. It also aligns with Angola’s participation in the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and SADC. National Energy Security policy is also benefitted from this new strategy.
Hydropower Policy
The 2025 Plan is also focused on exploiting the potential of hydropower for the generation of electricity. More than 100 sites have been identified for large hydropower projects. The goal of the strategy is to increase the capacity of hydroelectricity from 1200MW to 9000 MW. The concerned company GAMEK has been expanded to help it in faster development and construction of hydropower projects along the Kwanza river flowing through Angola.
Solar Energy Policy
Under the 2025 energy plan, Angola has fixed a target of having 800 MW of energy capacity by 2025. The country has a high annual average of solar radiation, which has made the solar power projects of prime importance. Multiple sites have already been identified as being suitable for the generation of large scale solar power. The Scaling Solar program has been started by the Ministry of Energy and Water to encourage private investors for solar projects.
Wind Power Policy
The country has identified a few sites where wind energy has the potential to generate a good amount of power. This renewable energy plan aims to reach a capacity of 3.9 GW by 2025.
Policy for Other Renewable sources
The new strategy has developed a goal to make maximum utilization of biomass. The aim is to bring it in as an alternative source of energy. The capacity that has been set as a target is 500 MW by the year 2025. The government is also looking forward to taking advantage of the huge forests that cover the land.
Strategic Objectives of the 2025 Angola Energy Plan
To guide the sustainable development of Angola and to promote investments in the energy sector of the country, the 2025 Plan has set up the following objectives:
- Promotion of human development and well being of Angolans
As a means of promoting human development, the objective is to provide electricity to the majority of the population. The plan includes providing electrical power access to the major cities through the grids and using the decentralized sources of energy for the rural population.
- Harmonious development of the national territory
Under this, the plan is to allocate the generation stations efficiently and also to have a transmission network that will be reliable for the sustainable development process. The power distribution through every territory in the country is what the long term strategy aims for.
- Enhanced development on the economic front
Re-industrialization is an important part of this long term strategy. This can be achieved by having a reliable and sufficient energy transmission across all major and minor sectors at a reasonable rate to attract investments from the private sector. The participation of private investors in the national economy will be a huge step towards the economic development of the nation.
- Entry into the competition of World Economy
From a larger perspective, the 2025 Strategy aims to place Angola along with other countries in the World Economy. Integration with the SADC and CEEAC regional power markets is an important target. To achieve this target, Angola has pledged to make the best use of its solar and hydropower sources.
- Equative and sustainable development
This includes the implementation of the renewable energy development policy of 2015-2025. The aim is to reduce the use of forest biomass for cooking purposes in the rural areas of the country. The focus is on making efficient use of natural resources without disturbing the environment, having enough resources for the generations to come, and regional development.
Conclusion
Angola has already started work on many hydropower and solar projects. This has brought a significant reduction in the use of traditional energy sources that have adverse environmental effects. The country is doing all for the achievement of the goals by 2025.
