CIREG - Climate Information to support integrated Renewable Electricity Generation

In rural Sub-Saharan Africa, about 86% of the population has no access to electricity, which is the lowest rate worldwide. Access to electricity is a crucial component of socio-economic development and is associated with, e.g., higher youth literacy, improved ambulant and nursing care, enhanced employment, and generates alternative income activities. While West Africa’s population is projected to double by 2050, the electricity demand is expected to increase fivefold by 2030 (IRENA, 2015).

To meet the future electricity demand, while keeping Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions at a low level, energy prices affordable, and achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), context-specific combinations of different renewables, either in centralised or as off-grid solutions, including mini-grids and stand-alone solutions, will be required. The abundance of unexploited renewable energy potential in West Africa is a valuable prerequisite for the implementation of modern energy technologies. With that, West African countries have the potential to leapfrog on modern renewable electricity generation, a crucial transformation process the CIREG project intends to support by co-developing climate services and solutions to provide relevant information to stakeholders and decision-makers.

For this purpose, researchers from European and West African institutes are working closely together with stakeholders and decision-makers from West Africa to co-generate demand-driven climate services in the frame of renewable energy planning.

Major steps of our approach consist of:

• Mapping of official and informal landfills in Bamako (remote sensing based);
• Modelling of groundwater dynamics and mass transport (FEFLOW model);
• Development of sustainable management measures for the protection of groundwater (focus: drinking water extraction versus the adverse effects of landfills/waste dumps; vulnerability analysis (DRASTIC model));
• Suggestions for the integration of groundwater protection measures into long-term spatial planning.

In order to promote the exploitation of the project results, the research will be supplemented by the following measures:

• Training and capacity building (use of project results in teaching programmes of partner universities; involvement of young scientists; participation of women in view of the socio-cultural situation towards gender equality in Mali);
• Awareness raising among relevant actors (population, authorities) and strengthening cooperation between universities, administration, practitioners and civil society;
• Identifying market opportunities for the private sector (Germany, Africa) in the field of waste management and groundwater protection.