Africa is utilising less than 1% of its wind power potential, which is “very, very, very little”, says Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) Africa director Wangari Muchiri.

A new report released at Windaba 2023 this week shows that the continent has 9 GW of wind energy installed, but that the potential hovers around 33 000 GW.

The study was limited to wind farms bigger than 1 MW.

Muchiri says there are currently 223 wind projects in Africa, either announced, under construction, or installed.

The main markets are South Africa, Egypt and Morocco, with new markets such as Senegal, Djibouti and Nigeria also starting to roll out wind energy.

The new study indicates that the continent’s wind energy potential is greatest in the north – Egypt, Morocco – at around 18 000 GW. 

Southern Africa actually has the least potential, notes Muchiri, at a mere 891 MW, even though it currently has the most installed wind energy in Africa.

South Africa has close to 3.7 GW of installed wind energy, states the report. Egypt is at number three.

This potential is the reason Egypt has announced a raft of large-scale wind projects, often measured in GWs, rather than MWs.

Muchiri says it appears as if wind power is starting to make a comeback following a project lull during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“However, this is still very small in comparison with what it could be on the continent.”

The GWEC report also reveals that Siemens Gamesa has a 48% share of the African wind power market, outgunning every other wind turbine competitor. However, China’s Goldwind, currently at a 2% market share, is expected to gain ground rapidly, challenging Europe’s dominance, says Muchiri.

She adds that GWEC’s manufacturing members have indicated that they require 1 GW of wind power installations every year, consistently, to consider manufacturing in Africa, most likely of turbine blades and towers.

The report highlights that wind power has provided energy to 19-million African households to date, while it has also secured $15.2-billion in investment and abated 24.4-billion tons of carbon dioxide.

Muchiri notes that the current drivers of wind power are the need for additional power; providing grid stability as a secondary or tertiary source of energy; moving away from fossil fuels; and providing energy to captive, localised projects and installations, such as mines.

“We see a lot of [the latter] happening across Africa.”

Future drivers for wind power include the need for existing wind farms to upgrade their technology and output; powering the production of green hydrogen; as well as powering electric mobility, with wind able to charge electric vehicles at night.