Sierra Leone’s Renewable Energy Transition Drive
By Musa Kamara
Dr Kandeh Yumkella speaking at the Climate Resilience and Energy Transition Dialogue
Tears Streamed down her cheeks, unchecked and relentless, her throat tightened, and a lump forming that made speech impossible. Situation of crying mother Fatima Bangura who just lost her new born baby due to power cut at the Sierra Leone’s biggest referal children hospital, the Ola During.
Like Bangura, many mothers have lost their young born at the hospital due to same reason. Energy poverty has affected all sectors in the country with less access to electricity.
The World Bank’s Sierra Leone – Beyond Connections: Energy Access Diagnostic Report was released in June 2024 and provides a detailed analysis of the energy sector in Sierra Leone. The reports points out low access, unreliable supply and high cost of energy as some of the challenges in the sector and called for Sierra Leone’s Transition to Renewable and clean energy.
Biomass from Agriculture, hydro, solar power are the various resources available opportunity for the country to transition from fossil fuel to clean and renewable energy. Despite all these, World Bank surveys indicate that biomass fire wood account for 80% of Sierra Leone’s energy sources for cooking and other uses.
The Extractive Industries, Transparency Initiative is a global body that enhances transparency and accountability in natural resources management. At its 2023 global conference in Senegal, it added energy transition in its standards to encourage countries to transition from fossils fuel such as oil, natural resources and coal to clean energy, including renewable resources like wind and solar to protect the environment from pollution and improve community resilience. Sierra Leone is part of the member countries that signed to this agreement through the Sierra Leone Extractive Industries, Transparency Initiative (SLEITI)
In relation to this and other international conventions, and treaties, Sierra Leone has pledged transitioning to renewable energy through private sector investment rural connectivity as it aims to achieve 85% renewable energy capacity by 2030. This will be achieved through the growth of mini-grids and off-grid systems, as well as the development of low-cost hydropower. The 480 million dollars Millennium Challenge Corporation compact grant from the US government would help to lubricate the wheels of government approach in the transition process as $226 million dollars will be spent on transmission backbone project to expand energy in-take from Sierra Leone’s renewable sources like the Bunbuna Hydro and the CLSG line from Ivory Coast.
ACTION POINTS
In his words, the chairman of the Presidential Initiative on Climate Change, Renewable Energy and Food Security in President Bio’s government, Hon. Dr. Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella described energy as the golden thread that runs through the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Realizing the significant of reliable energy in national development and growth, Dr. Yumkella conveyed a National Dialogue on Climate Resilience and Energy Transition with the Theme “ From Commitment to Action’’.
This conference is in response to the inaugural National Climate Resilience and Energy Conference held in October 2023, a conference that attracted over 500 participants, including experts and resource persons from around the globe. The 2024 edition aims to build on the outcomes agreed upon in the last dialogue, the OPEC Fund for International Development roundtable dialogue hosted earlier this year, and signing of the Millennium Challenge Corporation Compact (MCC). This year’s dialogue saw the launch of the strategic plan for PI-CREF, presentation of the Just Energy Transition and Green Growth (JET-P) and Green Growth Investment Plan (GGIP), unveiling of the National Clean Cooking Action Plan, and the establishment of the Climate Finance and Energy Innovation Hub.
World Bank in it 2024 reports on the energy sector projected that the economy stand to grow by 4% in 2025, but low access to power remain the binding constrain to growth and that the country :
“Needs to move away from liquid fuel-based energy generation towards solar and other renewable sources as well as a cheaper imported electricity”.
Solar Panels
Cost of Energy Transition and Its Impacts on Climate Change Mitigation.
The 2024 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) provides a data-driven summary of the state of sustainability around the world. Using 58 performance indicators across 11 issue categories, the EPI ranks 180 countries on climate change performance, environmental health, and ecosystem vitality. These indicators provide a gauge at a national scale of how close countries are to established environmental policy targets. The EPI offers a scorecard that highlights leaders and laggards in environmental performance and provides practical guidance for countries that aspire to move toward a sustainable future.
In the 2024 EPI survey, Sierra Leone is ranked 99 out of 180 countries in the Air Quality issue category which measures the impacts of air pollution on human health in each country. It consists of seven indicators: anthropogenic PM2.5 exposure, household solid fuels, ozone exposure, nitrogen oxides exposure, sulfur dioxide exposure, carbon monoxide exposure, and volatile organic compound exposure.
Huge air pollution
With such indicators, it is time to transition to renewable and green energy. But transition comes with a huge cost on the government and partners, according to Hon. Dr. Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella , Sierra Leone needs 39 billion dollars to achieve energy transition from fossil fuel to renewable energy by 2040, not only for the electricity sector, but also to decarbonize the transport sector for net zero in carbon emission. The immediate plans to achieve this is the expansion of the Bumbuna Hydro to triple its current production capacity of 50 megawatt to 150 megawatt. Partners like the Africa 50s are also ready to invest in the production of 100 megawatt solar light project. Dr. Yumkella believes that the green transition has started with the existing solar energy, mini grids and hydro project, but for total transition it will cost the country billions of dollars.
Partners are key in the transition drive hence the National Dialogue on Climate Resilience and Energy Transition attracted key players in the sector; UNDP Sierra Leone, Africa 50, Global Energy for People and Planet, International Atomic Energy Agency, Sustainable Energy for All, Irish Embassy are some of the partners in Sierra Leone’s journey to energy transition.
To be published in the November 2024 edition of Expo Magazine