Inside Africa: Djibouti Strives To Achieve Total Green Energy

Stephane Cardinale - Corbis

For more than two decades, Djibouti has been in an acute energy race, placing a great deal of focus on embracing renewable energy. The stakes are high for this small country with a subsoil devoid of any fossil fuels, and for which electricity coverage is as much a question of economic and social development as it is of national sovereignty. 

Further developing the energy sector would enable the country to have the energy resources required to set in motion the impressive urban, port, and in the not-too-distant future, industrial infrastructures that have been emerging over the past 10 years in a highly unstable sub-regional context — and the Djiboutian government has taken note of this potential. 

The state proclaimed its bold ambition to become the first African country to be entirely reliant on green energy. This ambitious goal has been mocked by various states in the regional community — even more developed states in the West have yet to achieve such a colossal goal in the race to combat emerging issues of climate change. 

Forecasts by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the intergovernmental organization mandated to facilitate cooperation, advance knowledge and promote the adoption and sustainable use of renewable energy, indicate that with the right policies, regulation, governance and access to financial markets, sub-Saharan Africa could meet up to 67% of its energy needs by 2030.

Adnan Amin, the director-general of IRENA, says a lot of countries in Africa are increasingly embracing renewables as an enabler to leapfrog to a sustainable energy future. “As a promising sign of things to come, several African countries have already succeeded in making steps necessary to scale up renewables, such as the adoption of support policies, investment promotion and regional collaboration,” Amin said at the 9th Session of the agency’s assembly, held in Abu Dhabi last year.

Djibouti faces several roadblocks in achieving this ambitious goal of an entirely green energy sector. Much of Djibouti’s energy comes from volatile imports, while 65% of the state’s electricity currently comes from Ethiopia.

According to the IRENA, this reliance on imported energy leads to price volatility that can hamper economic development plans within the energy sector. The remaining energy comes from the state’s own geothermal, solar, wind and biomass sources. However, the majority of this electricity is unreliable. According to USAID, with 100 megawatts of electricity that Djibouti consumes, only 57 megawatts are actually available to serve the population due to the underdeveloped energy infrastructure. Only 60% of Djiboutians have access to electricity, as a large disparity in resource access exists between urban and rural areas; far more city dwellers are connected to the grid than those in rural areas. 

The World Bank reports that reliable energy is critical for several aspects of development such as “health, education, food security, gender equality, livelihoods and poverty reduction.” Simply put, enhancing the state energy sector is vital for sustained progress in Djibouti.

Renewable energy sources appear to act as a beacon of promise in terms of providing the ability to extend reliable electricity supply throughout the country. Sitting at a major waterway entrance to the gulf-states region, Djibouti is a critical gatekeeper in the international economy. Significant geothermal, wind and solar energy sources hold the capability to meet twin concerns of energy access and energy security across the country.

Despite these hurdles in development, Djibouti retains a great deal of potential to increase domestic renewable energy production. The state has a natural capacity to produce 300 megawatts of renewable energy annually — nearly triple of what the state actually produces today. 

A tough feat to achieve, Ismaïl Omar Guelleh (IOG) took up the issue when first elected in 1999. Since then, the Djiboutian President secured the electricity interconnection project with his Ethiopian neighbor, which had been under discussion for several years between the two countries. The project finally began to materialize in 2011, with the construction of a 283-km high-voltage line linking the Ethiopian town of Dire Dawa to the suburb of Djibouti City. “This line represents 60-65% of the country’s electricity consumption,” noted the president. A second line is currently being completed to inject an additional 60 MW per day into the Djibouti network before the end of 2021. Further capitalizing on domestic development projects such as this provides the state with the means to grow its own resource-producing capabilities, removing the pressure of resource reliance.

“It’s clear that significant new investment is now critically needed to accelerate the growth of renewable energy in Africa so as to ensure sufficient, affordable, reliable energy for all citizens and drive inclusive, just and sustainable energy transitions. Governments can play an enabling role by promoting and implementing policy interventions to enable this acceleration. These could be linked to related actions to strengthen energy security, scale-up infrastructure investment, and promote the growth of the green economy,” noted Akinwumi Adesina, the President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), reiterated the bank’s commitment to promoting renewable energy and called for concerted effort to mobilize and bridge the financing gap. 

Despite the challenges emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic, the fundamentals of renewable energy expansion have not changed. Renewable energy in Africa is set to surge, projected to make up almost half of power generation growth in the sub-Saharan parts of the continent by 2040. The World Bank reports a four percent increase in access to electricity from 2013 to 2017— the largest sustained increase in over two decades.

When looking at the big picture, Vera Songwe, the UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa stated that renewable energy presents the opportunity to provide access to energy to over 70%  of Africans who are currently without access. “The good news is that the compelling case for clean energy in Africa has never been stronger than now, with so much demand for energy owing to population growth, increasing urbanization, industrialization and trade, and climate change among other factors,” says Songwe.

By harnessing energy from renewable sources, Djibouti can reduce poverty without depleting its forests or relying on imported coal or oil. Becoming the first African country to use 100 percent renewable energy grants Djibouti the opportunity to become a leading international voice in sustainable development — a topic that continues to consume international conversation.