This document provides an overview and recommendations for modernized bioenergy opportunities in West Africa. It summarizes that traditional biomass makes up 50-80% of energy consumption in West Africa but access to modern energy is low. Recommendations include focusing first on low-cost biomass resources like agricultural residues rather than energy crops, and prioritizing low-capital projects like improved cookstoves. Public-private partnerships and learning from other regions' experiences are emphasized to support bioenergy development and access to modern energy services in West Africa.

1. Opportunities for modernized bioenergy in
West Africa
Prepared by Smail
Khennas for UNDP

3. OUTLINE
Focus on investment and finance
1. Context & Objective
2. Key issues regarding
sustainability
3. Biomass resources
4. Investment and finance
5. Key Recommendations

4. Support Implementation of ECOWAS White Paper
Expanding Access to Modern Energy Services
Context & Objectives of Study:
1. Information on practices, policies
and programs for developing bio-
energy to expand access to modern
energy services
2. Information on financing and
partnership models
3. Bio-energy use with the ongoing
multifunctional platform programs
in the Region
4. Operational recommendations on
bioenergy development and
prioritization ( to meet MDGs)

5. Overview of current situation
1. Traditional biomass represent
50 % to 80% of final energy
consumption and total primary
energy supply
2. Low access to modern cooking
fuels (LPG)
3. Low access to electricity; Cape
Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and
Nigeria (50%) Burkina Faso,
Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau,
Mali, Niger and Sierra Leone
(12% ).
4. Apart from Nigeria, high
dependence on fossil fuels

6. Sustainability issues of modern bioenergy
Bioenergy Sustainability Criteria (UN-Energy)
• Improved energy services for the
poor;
• Contribution to agro-industrial
development and jobs creation;
• Impact on health and gender ;
• Impact on land use;
• Impact on climate change.
• Impact on food security and
energy security;
• Impact on government budget;
• Impact on trade, In-out door pollution cause by wood
• Impact on biodiversity and fuel
natural resource management;

7. Development potential
of modernised bioenergy
Energy needs Bioenergy solution
1. Cooking and heating • Improved cooking stoves and
improved carbonization processes
2. Lighting and other
domestic use (low • Landfill gas and biogas systems at
voltage). household or industrial level based
power generation
3. Electricity and shaft
power (Income • Combined heat and power (CHP)
Generating Activities). production from agro- and wood
residues, plant oil eg.jatropha
4. Mobility: transport fuels
• Transport fuels (biodiesel,
bioethanol), from energy crops

8. Maslow Energy Pyramid applied to Energy Acces
in ECOWAS region

9. Biomass resources
in the ECOWAS region
ECOWAS: 512 Mha; pop.
of 280 M in 2007.
• Trend: Growing demand
for traditional bio energy
and increasing
agricultural demand
leads to continued
reduction in forest cover.
• Opportunites: untapped
biomass resources : (i)
Agricultural residues (ii)
Dedicated energy crops,
(III) Woody biomass and Data source: FAO, 2009 and CIA, 2009
(IV) Aquatic biomass .

10. Availability and use of biomass resources
in West Africa
Types of resources
Woodfuels
• Wood consumption is well
above the annual increment
(deforestation);
• Residues (e.g. sawmills) are
left unused;
Agrofuels
• Ethanol: sugar cane, sweet
sorghum, cassava
• Biodiesel : palm oil ,, cotton
seed oil, peanut oil, Jatropha
oil, coconut oil
Groundnuts Senegal

11. Availability and use of biomass resources
in West Africa
Dumped melasse in north Senegal (Demba Diop,
Types of resources 2004)
Municipal by-products :
• Landfill gas for energy
generation
• Avoid uncontrolled
dumping
• Cost effective compared
with other options

12. Agro residues…
Agro residues and by-products have lower costs than
grown energy crops in the ECOWAS region:
• Cote d’Ivoire alone 42% of world production cocoa. Ghana and
Nigeria other top producers ;
• Important palm oil and coconuts effluents;
• Nigeria world leading producer of cassava; cutting edge
technology for increasing yields ;
• Large scale production of cotton, groundnuts, sorghum in the
Sahel enables the use of the residues for energy generation;
• Irrigated agriculture: Volta, Niger, Senegal, Gambia rivers:
enough rice straw,
• Aquatic plants (typha) to contribute to the production of biogas or
for electricity generation

13. Electricity and Mechanical power
• Biogas for power MFP, village of Dougounionain , Mali
generation
(slaughterhouse, large
scale farm, agroprocessing
units);
• Bioliquids for power
generation (MFP);
• Combined Heat and Power
(waste heat recovery to
feed steam turbines for
electricity generation)
• Thermal biomass
gasification and landfill gas
valorisation

14. Theoretical and realisable potential

15. Investment
• Climate finance (Article 4.3 of UNFCCC) central issue in
global climate negotiations since its beginning (UNFCCC,
1992).
• COP 15, Copenhagen 2009 and Cancún 2010 (COP 16),
countries made a concrete Commitment of USD 100
billion per year by 2020 from developed countries to
address the needs of developing countries.
Various sources, public and private, bilateral and
multilateral, (UNFCCC)

16. Investment
Source:
IPCC

18. Scale of investment for biomass
energy
• Improved stoves: the market for improved woodfuel stove for
45 M households million estimated at USD 500 million
• Biogas : technical potential for Africa: 18.5 M people have
sufficient dung and water to operate biogas plants
West Africa: 4.88 M households (Nigeria: 2.2M)
20 % of the technical potential = US$3.7 billions

19. Scale of investment for biomass energy
Investmen O&M Life time Typical size
t cost €/kWe/year (years
€/kWe
Biogas plant 2550 - 115 - 140 25 0.1-0.5 MWe
(agri) 4290
Landfill gas 1350 - 50 - 80 7.5 - 8
plant 1950
Biomass plant 2225 - 84 - 146 30 1 – 25
2995
Waste 5500 - 145 - 249 30 2 – 50
incineration 7125
plant

20. Strategic Financing Position of different types
of financers

21. General Recommendations
1. Energy efficiency improvement remains as important as
renewable energy production including bioenergy.
2. Focus on low capital intensive & low operational costs first.
3. Low risks option: technically and commercially proven.
4. Work primarily with local investors, entrepreneurs and diaspora
finance as drivers.
5. Use successful projects as building stone for further roll out.

22. General Recommendations (cont.)
1. Waste management to generate bioenergy
2. Focus on cheap readily-available residues instead of more
expensive energy crops.
3. Bundles of small projects to scale up; PPP financing
4. Avoid mistake by learning from countries or regions that are
ahead regarding the implementation of bioenergy.

23. Policy
1. Prioritize policy choices and related programs using the Maslow
Bioenergy Pyramid
2. Coherent and stable bioenergy policy with short-, medium- and
long-term goals
3. Establish clear regulatory and legal framework for IPP and FIT
4. Blending policy and tax exemptions to create a market for the
transportation sector.
5. Experiences of the Bioenergy Policy Support Programme for East
Africa; (BEST, GTZ) improved cook stoves (e.g. DGIS/GTZ), the
“Biogas for Better Life Initiative” on domestic cooking gas (SNV,
DGIS, GTZ) and the Multifunctional Platform programmes(UNDP
and others), to support policy and program development.

24. Market Development
1. Wide scale dissemination of improved cooking stoves;
2. Biogas at a domestic scale and landfill gas generation.
3. Power generation or cogeneration based on biomass residues
both for domestic rural and industrial applications.
4. Greater dissemination of the Multifunctional Platforms with
gradual replacement of fossil oil to biodiesel.
5. Liquid biofuels should be used to satisfy local need first.
6. Besides Jatropha, the Region has comparative advantages with
cassava (Nigeria tops the academic research on cassava), Sugar
cane and other residues (cocoa, sheanut, peanuts, palmoil
effluents, rices and coffee husk).

25. Financing
1. Legal framework that provides a long-term stable market.
2. Appropriate and specific financial incentives for the prioritised bioenergy
options for West Africa;
3. The niche markets need investment subsidies and/or soft loans
4. The mature market segments need FIT and tax exemptions .

26. Financing
1. Donor finance: Improved biomass cooking stoves, biogas for
domestic use, MFP, landfill gas production and utilisation need.
1. Private investors : Industrial biogas, cogeneration and liquid
biofuel bioethanol/biodiesel production.
2. Governments are recommended to stimulate bioenergy based PPP
.

27. Capacity Development
1. Develop more local expertise on bioenergy systems.
2. Consider a “Bioenergy Capacity Building Programme – BIOCAB”
as under consideration at UNIDO as well.
3. Support training and exposure on bioenergy aspects for key
policy & decision makers.
4. Enhance understanding Carbon credit market and potential as
source of financing
5. Update the relevant websites on bioenergy policies in West
Africa.

28. Technology transfer and R&D
1. Avoid immature technology. Only commercially proven
technologies dissemination perspective.
2. Consider a working group on bioenergy through an Internet
platform that serve as data quality filter.
3. Utilize the know-how and experiences on bioenergy available at
the donor organisations and private sector.
4. Consider technology transfer from other emerging countries.
5. Focus on the applications side and not on the development of the
technologies itself.
6. Develop O&M Capacity. Each projet should have a O&M budget for
the long term.

29. AND THE POOR

30. Thank you, Merci