A new report suggests that switching to 100% renewable energy wouldn’t just pay for itself—it would actually save Africa trillions of dollars by 2050.
Building a fully renewable system would cost about US$7.3 trillion over 30 years, but Africa would save around US$8.3 trillion on fuel during that period as the electricity comes online, saving an estimated $150 billion per year. That’s enough to cover the entire investment and then some by 2050, write the authors of a new report by Power Shift Africa, the Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology Sydney (ISF-UTS) in Australia, and other partners.
The fuel savings alone are more than twice the additional $3.8 trillion investment required to continue using fossil fuels. “Africa has great untapped potential to provide energy for everyone and to supply the required energy for its transition to a middle-income continent,” Professor Sven Teske of UTS-ISF, the scientific research lead, said in a press release.
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