Status of renewable energy in Cameroon

Globally, the continuous increase of energy consumption coupled with the depletion of the limited fossil fuel sources and their negative impacts on the environment, has shifted focus towards renewables for a sustainable development. For the last fifteen years, the world has enjoyed renewables generation capacity increases in a double-digit Terawatt-hours range. Although renewables consumption is fast developing in Asia Pacific, Europe and North America, significant coordination efforts are required among stakeholders in sub-Saharan Africans countries such as Cameroon. In 2018, the total final energy consumption in Cameroon was 7.41 Mtoe, 74.22% of which was from biomass, 18.48% from fossil fuels and 7.30% from electricity. Furthermore, 6977 GWh of electricity was produced, 78.29% of which from the major electricity operator (ENEO S.A. Cameroon) and 21.71% from independent producers (GLOBELEQ, ALTAAQA Sinohydro China and AGGREKO). More than three quarter of electricity produced were consumed by industry (57.04%) and residential (20.74%) sectors. The country's installed electricity generation capacity rose to 1402 MW, 56.15% of which was from hydropower, 43.84% from fossil fuels (17.55% from natural gas and 26.29% from oil) and 0.01% from solar photovoltaic. The promotion of renewable energy is an important part of Cameroon's plan to increase energy security and provide job opportunities to the country. Yet, the lack of proactive and long-term renewable energy policy and laws, in addition to less attention paid to renewable energy training and research, financing mechanisms, and unaffordable costs of renewable energy technologies to the poor population are amongst present issues hindering the development of renewable energy in the country. Hence, this paper aims to highlight the present status of renewable energy exploitation and development in Cameroon.