Richmond Silvanus Baye
University of Tuebingen; Tuebingen, Germany.
Title: Renewable Energy Output in Africa
Biography
Biography: Richmond Silvanus Baye
Abstract
In most Sub Saharan African countries renewable energy has been part of the energy mix balance-sheet for quite a long time. However, the share of total primary energy from renewable sources have declined over time despite significant investment into the sector in the last decade. This paper pierce the veil of the energy sector to unearth the underlying factors driving renewable energy output in the region using a panel data of 32 SSA countries from 1990 to 2015. Using a novel estimator (Regression with Driscoll-Kraay standard errors) that is robust to serial correlation and cross-sectional dependence. Findings from the study point to the underlying factors of renewable energy in Co2 emissions per capita, income per capita, oil prices, trade openness, natural resource rents, urbanization, population growth rate, and climatic stress. The study proposes policies that incorporates environmental awareness in the national development plans of countries; increasing renewable energy consumption among the middle class; encourage regional renewable energy grid sharing; implementing and expanding the feed-in-tariff system; and granting tax incentives to companies that seek to invest and develop the renewable energy sector in the region.