Experts have said it is possible for Uganda to reach the target of 100% renewable energy by 2050, but warned many things have to change for the better.
“There are best practices that Uganda can adopt to achieve 100% renewable energy by 2050. For us to realise this target, it is important we put an enabling environment in place. This means the right policies that will make it conducive for the renewable energy sector to be renascent and grow. This includes regulations that attract financing that make it conducive for investors to inject in money, “said James Kakeeto, Regional Energy Officer at World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Uganda country office.
He was speaking during the ongoing annual Energy Week at Speke Resort Hotel in Munyonyo.
The Regional Energy Officer at WWF said the conducive environment should not be only for foreign investors but also locals to invest in renewable energy sector.
“It is better to ensure more financial flows and investments go into the renewable energy sector. We need to plug the gap to ensure local financial institutions can lend to players in the sector. We need to see that banks and financial institutions locally find it attractive to lend to underwrite renewable energy projects,” Kakeeto said.
According to the expert, there is need to encourage research and innovation in renewable energy and this will ensure many viable technologies using locally available resources will come onto the market.
“For example, Uganda has abundant sunshine throughout the year and therefore the potential into solar energy is high. More research therefore needs to be done in this area to start local production of solar equipment like panels and batteries but we can as well do assembly of the equipment. It may not be possible to do local production in the medium long term but we can look at other incentives like tax holidays or waivers to allow renewable energy products flow into the country easily.”
According to Kakeeto, there is not need for incentives on the demand side, to ensure consumers can easily access credit to acquire renewable energy products and this will motivate more end users to use renewable energy.
WWF Country Director, Ivan Tumuhimbise said there is need to increase access to renewable energy.
“For instance, increasing investment in alternative sources of clean energy will entail understanding and addressing issues that are limiting adoption of clean sources of energy. There is need for investment in efficiency clean cooking technology so that the public can adopt them. This way, we shall increase the use of renewable energy,” Tumuhimbise said.
Sensitization
The experts say that sensitization of the members of the public about renewable energy is a key aspect if the country is to achieve its 100% target by the year 2050.
“When we talk about affordability, our people have a short term view of this yet it is a broad thing. We need to sensitize people to see that whereas they initially pay expensively for a solar system, it is very cheap in the long run since it is powered by the sun and will not be required to pay any other charges or bills as the case is with hydro-power. You might look at it as a small cost but in long run is big. Our people should be able to see things this way,” Tumuhimbise said.
According to World Bank, by 2018, only 28% of Uganda’s population had access to electricity and current figures show around 30% of the population has access to electricity and less than 6% has access to clean cooking fuels.
In 2020, the Government launched a programme to install 500,000 solar home systems in rural areas by 2025, which will provide clean electricity to households that are not connected to the grid.
Over the next five years, the Government plans to connect an additional 1.5 million households to the grid and increase the electrification rate from 28% to 50% but this wont be enough.
Uganda's ambitious target is to 100% transition to renewable energy by 2050.