Building low-carbon energy innovation systems in Africa

Abstract

The objective of this special issue is to bring together research on low-carbon innovation in the African context. The aim is to assess and compare various cases of low-carbon energy development in Africa in an effort to understand the underlying innovation and learning mechanisms that promote their adoption in different contexts. We seek to identify which actors and models drive such projects, what socio-technical factors facilitate their adaptation, and how the relevant communities or localities build the required technological capabilities for them to function optimally. Our approach to the investigation involved qualitative case studies using in-depth interviews, site visits, and scenario casting. In conclusion, our findings showed that by linking the models to the multi-dimensional outcomes desired of energy provision and access in diverse settings in Africa, critical insights into the mechanisms, drivers and barriers to developing vibrant linkages that can stimulate innovation in these technological systems would be gained. Such desired outcomes include, but are not limited to cost-effectiveness, environmental sustainability, and economic development opportunities.

KEYWORDS:

• low-carbon energy
• environmental sustainability
• climate change
• policy
• national innovation systems
• learning mechanisms
• technological capabilities
• Africa

Background

Energy has been the key to economic development for the several past industrial decades of our world. It is thus alarming that billions of people in this day and age still lack access to the most basic energy services with around 1.3 billion people denied access to electricity and 2.7 billion people relying on the traditional use of biomass for cooking. Lack of access to modern energy services is a serious hindrance to economic and social development and must be overcome if the African Union Agenda 2063 and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are to be achieved. The eradication of rural poverty depends on increased access to goods and services as outlined in the United Nations SDGs. However, alleviating poverty is hindered by two interlinked phenomena: the lack of access to improved energy services and worsening environmental conditions due to climate change. Mitigating climate change, increasing energy access, and alleviating rural poverty are all complementary efforts and their overlap defines an energy-poverty-climate nexus.¹

There have been several attempts to resolve sustainability issues. Of these, the Dutch approach is probably the most ambitious, and a visible attempt to link innovation and sustainability issues. The Fourth Dutch National Environmental Policy Plan (NMP4) in 2001 argued that ‘solving the major environmental problems requires system innovation; … long drawn-out transformation processes comprising technological, economic, socio-cultural and institutional changes’ (VIROM-Raad, 2001, 30). Prodded by them, more Recently there has been a shift in the debates to institutional and policy debates, as they are intrinsically associated with environmental innovation and, together, they define the path towards sustainability (Stamm et al. 2010).

System innovations are social in the sense that they rely on ‘an institutional context … constituted by laws, social rules, cultural norms, routines, habits, technical standards, etc.’ (Lundvall 2000, 24). Innovation within the social context comprises new ideas and solutions that aim to resolve social needs and problems. Innovation is required to overcome the lock-in to existing institutions and technologies, and direct resource towards more efficient and low-carbon energy technologies. Therefore, there is a need to support innovations that solve environmental problems, as innovations can create options for substitution, mitigate uncertainties and enable environmental problems to be solved sooner than they would otherwise (Foxon 2003). Access to energy is a social need and the lack of access to energy poses many problems that thwart social development. In many developing countries of Asia and Africa, access to energy is still a big challenge and, at present, around 80% of global energy demand is still met by fossil fuels.

Building low-carbon energy innovation systems

There is no single uncontested pathway towards transitioning from fossil fuels to low-carbon energy pathways for any country or region. Instead, as evidenced from the past, there are multiple possible ways in which the outcome of a transition to a low-carbon energy system can be achieved. These outcomes are often achieved within the context of a national systems of innovation (NSIs) where networks of actors (e.g. firms, universities, research institutes, government departments, NGOs) emerge and interact to enable innovation processes such as those involved in technology development, its transfer and the uptake of the technology in the market.

In a national systems of innovation, Lundvall (1992) and other scholars define innovation as a system constituted by elements and relationships which interact in the production, diffusion and use of new and economically useful knowledge. It has been increasingly recognized that innovation is a comprehensive and interactive process, which is not only, or even primarily, about breakthrough ‘high-tech’ equipment emerging from R&D labs, and so the emerging research challenge is to understand how learning and the capability-building process take place in the diverse settings of developing countries (Lema, Iizuka, and Walz 2015). The building of low-carbon innovation systems requires attention to more than the deployment of technologies through market deployment and involves strategic policy interventions, political will against fossil fuel and active participation of the poor in innovation activities, among others (Byrne and Ockwell 2013; Bryne et al. 2012).

Past efforts of technology deployment, not only of climate technologies but of other early industrial technologies, focused on the transfer of these technologies from developed and industrialized countries to developing countries. Despite the emphasis given to technology transfer, major problems emerged with regard to the ineffectiveness of the transfer of technologies to developing countries, namely the lack of absorptive capacity on the part of the recipient country, and the unwillingness of the transferor to transfer the actual technology and the associated technical know-how and capabilities. Along with Stamm et al. (2010), we will argue that low-carbon energy technologies cannot be reached exclusively through the transfer of technologies developed in the North but that both local technological capabilities and joint innovation efforts are needed, and mainly at the policy level. Simply choosing and acquiring a technique does not mean operating it at best practice, as individual firms often do not have complete knowledge of all possible technological alternatives, their implications and the skills and information they require (Archibugi and Pietrobelli 2003).

According to Jafarieh (2001) and Sagar (2009), it became necessary for developing countries to develop their own local technological capability to adapt and absorb efficiently foreign climate technologies and those that would suit their local needs. This also means that it has become increasingly important for developing countries to identify and improve weak elements of their NSI, such as the interlinkages among the various actors that are engaged in low-carbon development in that particular country. The analysis of innovation systems therefore moves the need for a focus toward the combination of innovation and learning (Lundvall 2007). According to Lema, Iizuka, and Walz (2015), the concept of innovation systems emerged from developed countries and, therefore, in the context of developing countries it would be necessary to refer to innovation along with learning and competence-building systems.

In Lundvall’s framework (Lundvall, 1992), innovation is conceptualized as learning, since innovation is novelty in the capabilities and knowledge which make up the technology (Mytelka and Smith 2002). Crucial for knowledge of how ongoing activities may result in innovation is the understanding of learning processes. On the other hand, innovation processes may be seen as processes of joint production where one output is innovation and the other a change in the competence of the involved agents (Lundvall 2007). Learning that takes place during the process of innovation aids in the building of low-carbon innovation systems. Systems building is primarily a process of strengthening systemic development and it is also about transforming the relevant socio-technical setting (Lema, Iizuka, and Walz 2015).

This special issue sets out to gain an improved understanding of how developing countries of Africa can best undertake technology transfer and address the issue of climate change by adopting and developing policies and strategies that will quicken the pace of the transition to low-carbon energy innovation systems. Currently, there is limited understanding of the conditions under which an interactive learning space can be nurtured for low-carbon energy technologies in developing countries, and particularly in the case of countries of Africa. Such research has remained underexplored in the climate policy domain partly because of its enormous complexity and context-dependencies and the dominance of market-based discourse around climate policy (De Cornink and Sagar 2015) as well as the reluctance or lack of political will to move away from fossil fuels.

Furthermore, the articles in this special issue seek to overcome a prevalent disjuncture in the literature on technology and development, i.e. between recognizing that specific technologies are socially shaped (the science, technology and society perspective) and taking into account that market forces set limits to what kind of technology can be realized and used (the innovation studies perspective). And unarguably, the onus of the transition also relies upon effective policy regimes of developing countries that will enable the swift development and uptake of low-carbon energy technologies.

Developing countries have adopted different innovation strategies and models towards the development and diffusion of low-carbon energy technologies. For example, donor organizations² or a single firm or organization have been prime movers and drivers of low-carbon energy innovations (wind energy technology development in the case of India and China) that eventually led to the commercial development of these technologies and a source of national competiveness. For example, it is worth noting that the development of the Kenyan solar energy industry was not led by the private sector but was led by donor organizations that created the necessary space for learning and experimentation to develop their activities in the solar market (Byrne and Ockwell 2013). Therefore, this special issue, through a number of case studies, aims to identify the prime drivers that have driven low-carbon innovations in various countries in Africa.

We assume that four actor-driven models are driving low-carbon innovations in developing countries. These are:

• Donor-driven

• Policy-driven

• Firm-driven

• Social or entrepreneurial-driven.

While some of the articles provide empirical evidence through various cases by evaluating the outcome of each model or a hybrid of the models, such as a public-private cooperation or an initiative driven entirely by local entrepreneurship, others examine the technicalities involved in advancing low-carbon future on the continent. Furthermore, some articles explore the conditions and policy environment under which a particular type of model or hybrid of models is successful, including analyzing the nature of these partnerships and linkages, and how NSI can be strengthened. Each article not only aggregates policy lessons for the relevant country but also elicits the various outcomes achieved. Some of the articles also describe a number of outcomes which result from the innovation processes that lead to low-carbon innovation systems.

For sometime innovation outcomes were measured using statistical indicators that were quantifiable and measurable such as patents, publications, R&D expenditure, etc. However, measuring the outcomes of innovation was found to be increasingly biased when measuring innovation in developing countries, and increasingly so for new technologies and services. Innovation has been a crucial element in the process of industrialization and modernization of developing countries, such as efforts to introduce new products and processes, imitate rapidly frontier innovators, widely adopt new capital equipment and production technologies, and diffuse and adapt the use of new goods and services to local conditions (Bogliacino et al. 2009). Innovation is multi-dimensional in outcomes and is based on three pillars: economic, social and environmental. We enumerate the outcomes of innovation in Figure 1:

• Acceptance/legitimization (demand driven policies) – market formation

• Economic: entrepreneurial activities versus incumbent firms

• Institutions and carbon-lock ins: linkages

• Adaptability (localization) – will measure capabilities

• Social– energy access

• Affordability

• Pollution reduction

• Indirect spillovers

Figure 1: Mechanisms for strengthening linkages and learning (innovation) between actors.

In all the selected cases, we explored a number of research questions such as: What are the key models of sustainable energy innovation in Africa that are driving the transition to low-carbon energy innovation systems? How effective have these models been in achieving multidimensional sustainability outcomes? What type of innovation system best promotes interactive learning?

This special issue analyzed nine case studies. We started by analyzing the drivers of renewable energy resources in Kenya, with a special focus on the Ngong Wind Farm. The article shows that most low-carbon innovations in Kenya are driven by government tariffs and policies. Funding, political and community goodwill were also found to have influenced the success of wind power projects in Kenya. This project is a novel experiment that offers a sustainable alternative in the energy sector of Kenya. However, analysis shows that there is an urgent need for more investment in the renewable energy sector in order to sustain the level of achievement recorded in the case of Ngong Wind Farm. This case study also shows that there is a need to further build the indigenous capability in the area of low-carbon energy technologies by making funds available for research and development and also strengthen collaboration among the key actors of the NSI so as to foster innovations in the wind power sector of the country.

The second article makes a case for the supply of adequate electricity to some isolated rural communities in Cross River State of Nigeria using wind energy. This paper reiterates that off-grid, stand-alone renewable systems such as wind energy can be used to narrow the energy supply gap in many rural communities of Nigeria. This alternative to fossil fuels becomes even more viable considering the fact that most energy needs in rural areas are characterized by low-energy applications such as house lighting, battery charging, water pumping and others. The study thus assesses the wind energy potentials (WEP) of six locations in Cross River State, Nigeria. The final results show that the minimum required daily energy demand for lighting, radio and VCD/DVD can readily be supplied by the selected turbines using the wind profiles inherent in the locations. Moreover, the avoidable CO₂ obtained from the sites brought about a diesel savings between 242.79 and 14,524.94 litres/year. The paper concludes that the development of wind energy as a stand-alone system in the selected rural communities would improve people’s quality of life and boost the rural economy.

The next article in this special issue examines the issue of access to meteorological dataset that could be used to assess energy performance of buildings or efficiency of renewable energy systems. This paper is highly relevant to the sustainability of renewable energy systems, as non-availability of location specific climatic data has been one of the major challenges in adequately sizing of systems needed to meet the appropriate location loads prior to deployment. The article examined the performance of an off-grid PV-battery micro-grid system in the northern region of Nigeria. The authors adopted the Sandia method to generate typical meteorological year (TMY), using a 35-year hourly measured meteorological dataset from four stations in Nigeria. The authors found that typical and representative weather data, including TMY, are vital for successful simulations of renewable energy systems. Analysis from the article suggests that TMY data could predict the performance of the PV system to within 5% of the long-term data. The paper advocates for the use of simulation tools that could be used to predict performance of varying sizes of PV applications before appropriate investment and installation of the plant.

The fourth case study deals with small hydropower technology which is one of the most widely used forms of renewable energy technology. The author trace the history of small hydropower (SHP) in Nigeria and note that despite its long history, SHP technology in the country is still underutilized with the schemes operating in only few states in the country. The innovation models identified in the Nigerian SHP case include those that are policy-driven, socially-driven and the hybrid of donor-driven and policy-driven models. For example, the importance of the private sector or independent power producers (IPP) were critical in the development of SHP in parts of Nigeria. Another model identified the generation and distribution of power through SHP via the participation of international donor agencies such as the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the Bank of Industry (BoI), and governments, for example, the Governments of China and India in collaboration with the Federal and State Governments of Nigeria are the key stakeholders driving this initiative.

The fifth case study articulates that despite the abundance of solar radiation in Nigeria, solar applications and utilization in the country are majorly limited to small-scale and isolated applications. The main objective of this article therefore was to select the most appropriate locations in Nigeria suitable for the deployment of very large concentrated solar power plants (1000 MW ≤ installed power) that may not only serve the national power grid, but also the Supergrids and Global Grid such as the European Supergrid. The authors note that favourable policies are vital to long-term sustainability of solar energy development. They also emphasize the importance of ensuring that laws are stable and enforced. This will allow potential investors to have some level of trust that key legislative provisions put in place for solar activities will remain stable, unambiguous and enforced, thus allowing the continuity of investment into the future.

The next contribution to this special issue analyzed the economic feasibility of landfill gas for electricity generation in Lagos State of Nigeria. This article is timely as it has the potential to address the continuous indiscriminate disposal of municipal solid wastes. The study adopted a sectoral system of innovation which places emphasis on learning and acquisition of knowledge in order to make the necessary intervention or change in the economic system. The authors call the attention of the government to the need to subsidize the price of generating electricity from landfill gas. This may be a worthwhile initiative considering the fact that this low-carbon energy source has many other environmental benefits such as reduction of environment degradation and pollution.

The seventh paper in this special issue examines competence building of indigenous innovation capability in emerging and developing countries using Nigeria as a case study. The authors emphasize that solutions to the challenges of delivering clean, safe, secure and affordable energy require significant investment in low-carbon innovation technologies. They reiterate that developing low-carbon innovation capability requires the collective efforts of the various stakeholders such as industrial firms, research institutes and universities, international and local donors, financial institutions, members of the public and the government. The article explores the evolution of sustainable energy innovation and the model of sustainable low-carbon energy innovation in Nigeria. The authors suggest that the adoption of a policy-driven model could improve the indigenous innovation capability in low-carbon energy system.

The penultimate contribution to this special issue assesses the functions of innovation systems perspective in the adoption and diffusion of renewable energy technologies in developing countries using cases from Kenya and Rwanda. In order to achieve the main aim of the study, the author sets out three objectives. First, he argues that renewable energy promotion interventions in developing countries should follow a systematic approach that takes into account not only technological factors and beneficiary characteristics but also the institutional context in which technologies are embedded. Second, he reviews four case studies in the East African context and show that institutional functioning around new renewable energy technologies explains the low level of diffusion of such technologies. Finally, he provides a simplified framework for evaluating the institutional context of renewable energy technologies in developing countries using biogas and improved cookstove technological innovation systems in Kenya and Rwanda as case studies. The studies reveal that balanced accumulation of innovation systems is key for sustained uptake and adoption of renewable energy technologies in developing countries. The author concludes that evaluation of TIS functionality and developing system specific intervention strategies are decisive in influencing the diffusion and adoption of renewable energy technologies in Africa.

We rounded up this special issue with an article that explores the potential of futures based solely on renewable energy systems. The authors envision a neo-carbon energy system with high shares of solar, wind and other renewable energy sources. They also examine some condition where carbon dioxide from the air is used as a source for synthetic products such as plastics, chemicals and medicine. The paper proposes a neo-carbon energy innovation ecosystem, consisting of actors at multiple levels in the transitions to radical technological and social change. This paper asserts that deliberative foresight and a systemic approach to innovation could enable African countries to examine how future economies and energy systems can be transformed into emissions-free, efficient, low-cost and sustainable systems.

Concluding remarks

The main purpose of this special issue is to bring together evidence-based information on learning and competence building on low-carbon technologies within the context of African countries. The methods used by the authors consist of in-depth interviews, questionnaires, literature reviews and scenario casting. The adoption of case study approach helped us identify central policy issues – the missing actors, linkages and learning spaces through various mechanisms that are required in the development, diffusion and utilization of low-carbon energy technologies.

Many of the articles traced the evolution of the origins of each technology and determined what component of the innovation process (choice of the actor-model) resulted in the most significant outcomes. Networks of actors were mapped and linkages among actors were evaluated. Some of the articles were able to determine the outcomes of innovation (socio-technical outcomes) through an evaluation of the innovation models. Some of the articles also explored socio-technical and socio-cultural elements in the adoption and adaptation of foreign ideas, techniques and technologies. How these elements impact on or contribute to the outcomes of the model was also analyzed. At the same time, many of the articles explored how technological capabilities are developed and how ‘learning’ outcomes are achieved for each of the low-carbon technology considered.

In all, this special issue has brought to the fore the potentials of renewable energy systems and interactive learning mechanisms among the key elements of national innovation systems in Africa. However, more insights are still needed to increase our understanding of the socio-technical and socio-cultural elements in the adoption and adaptation of low-carbon technologies in Africa.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Acknowledgments

Articles by Ongoma, Sanni and Tigabu were supported by the African Network for the Economics of Learning, Innovation, and Competence Building Systems (AfricaLics), Kenya, with funds from the Swedish International Development Agency.

Notes

1 See Casillas and Kammen (2010).

2 Back in 1980s, DANIDA was the first foreign development agency to show interest in the potential of wind power market in countries such as Cape Verde, Somalia, China and India.