At the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week (ADSW) 2023, Masdar signed agreements with Angola, Uganda, and Zambia to develop renewable energy projects with a total capacity of up to 5 gigawatts. These agreements demonstrate Masdar’s commitment to assisting African nations in their clean energy transition (GW).
The agreements were signed under the auspices of the UAE-led Etihad 7 initiative, which aims to raise public and private funds to invest in the development of the renewable energy sector in Africa. Etihad 7 was introduced at ADSW 2022 by HE Sheikh Shakhboot Nahyan Al Nahyan, Minister of State in the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MoFAIC), to achieve 20 GW capacity to supply 100 million people with clean electricity across the continent by 2035.
Less than half of Sub-Saharan Africa’s population has access to electricity, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). 20 per cent of Africa’s electricity is generated from renewable sources. According to a report produced last year by Masdar and Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week with analytical support from McKinsey & Company, the continent has a potential theoretical capacity of approximately 850 terawatts (TW) of solar and wind energy.