Poised to revolutionize Africa’s energy landscape through advanced energy storage solutions, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mauritania, Mozambique, Nigeria and Togo are among the 11 countries committed to joining the Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) Consortium.
Announced on Monday by the Global Leadership Council (GLC) – an international network of political and business leaders – and the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP) – a philanthropic alliance of governments and entrepreneurs – during the COP28 summit, the BESS Consortium will aim to secure 5 GW of energy storage solutions by the end of 2024.
The BESS Consortium’s goal of achieving 5 GW of battery storage will provide a roadmap for deploying 400 MW of renewable energy by 2030 while mitigating up to a gigaton of CO2 emissions.
“The Global Energy Alliance’s GLC initiatives including the groundbreaking BESS Consortium are driving real and actionable progress,” stated Joseph Nganga, Vice President of Africa at GEAPP, adding, “We are determined to deliver scalable solutions and measurable outcomes at speed by the time world leaders reconvene at COP29 next year.”
With support from resource partners including GEAPP, the African Development Bank, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, the Agence Française de Développement, and the German Agency for International Cooperation, among others, the BESS Consortium is a multi-stakeholder partnership designed to transform energy systems across low- and middle-income countries.
Partners in the BESS Consortium will mobilize up to $1 billion in concessional finance to help prepare projects, improve the regulatory environment, and unlock private and public investment with the aim of increasing the reliability of energy grids and supporting renewable energy deployment to power socioeconomic development.