Enhancing sustainable development in sub-Saharan Africa: new integrated sustainability mechanisms for securing substantial benefits of renewable energy projects

Without doubt the renewable energy (RE) sector in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is currently booming exponentially. More often than not, these projects are designed as just “projects” thus leading to their failure in the shortest possible time. This can be easily seen from numerous already failed projects. Given that energy is the backbone of the economy in the region, the continuous use of unsustainable methods of energy generation coupled with the epileptic power supply and infrastructure, such circumstances cannot continue to prevail.

The long-term sustainability characteristics of these so-called projects are rarely considered during their planning and implementation. Despite the existence and buzz created by the annotation of sustainable development, in the region of SSA, it does seem like these definitions are nonexistent.

This thesis develops and presents integrated sustainability mechanisms that should be considered by stakeholders participating in the development and implementation of RE projects in SSA. A bottom-up approach is utilized that investigates the failures of existing projects while presenting the current state of affairs. Multiple sustainability characteristics – that include location analysis, sustainable management, protection of infrastructure and societal benefits – are presented and their application in the region is further executed. For any RE project implemented in the region of SSA to be successful, the integrated sustainability mechanisms presented in this thesis “must” be adopted.