- Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) receives 40% of solar radiation
- 1 in 2 people there do not have electricity
- SSA (with 15% of the world’s population in 16% of the land area) has an installed solar capacity one third that of Belgium

Belgium has about 7GW of installed solar, and the world has about 1 terawatt. So if Sub-Saharan Africa’s capacity is one third of Belgium’s, that’s 0.23% of the world’s.

…Which means that the global average of solar capacity is 1TW / 8 billion = 125W per person

but for Sub-Saharan Africa its 2.3GW / 1.17 billion = 2W per person

- - -

As if an inequality factor of more than 60 relative to the global average were not bad enough, the sheer wastefulness of the 40% of solar radiation is dumb as hell.

But then we live in an economic system that’s dumb enough to kill us

These numbers are crazy! Global energy #inequality is truly staggering.

That reminded me of this story: https://mas.to/@jackofalltrades/110010993752548115

Even solar installations built in North Africa may end up providing electricity to Europeans...

Jack of all trades

2023-03-12 15:22:28

https://e360.yale.edu/features/africa-europe-solar-wind-power

"""
Solar and wind farms are already proliferating south of the Mediterranean. Morocco’s Noor and Egypt’s Benban solar farms are among the largest in the world. Their initial aim has been to boost domestic power supplies and reduce reliance on coal. But now these facilities are increasingly being lined up to supply green energy to industrial neighbors to the north.
"""

In Scramble for Clean Energy, Europe Is Turning to North Africa

In its quest for green energy, Europe is looking to North Africa, where vast solar and wind farms are proliferating and plans call for submarine cables that will carry electricity as far as Britain.

^{Yale E360}