Politics of Renewable Energy in Africa: Nature, Prospects, and Challenges

Energy transition discussions have centered on the technical, economic, and policy aspects of energy transitions. Despite this, the political dynamics have received less attention. It is suggested that since energy policy change threaten incumbent industries and impose substantial costs, enacting and sustaining policies require considerable political support. Even though it is widely acknowledged that barriers to energy transition are primarily political than technical, there is a lack of cohesive literature on the politics that drive, constrain, and shape renewable energy regulation or policy. This gap motivates this study. Adopting a desk research methodology and arguing from the lens of Kingdon's multiple streams framework, the study found among others that the streams of problem, politics and policy shows enough prospects to be coupled for Africa to make a serious consideration on its renewable energy capacity. However, a number of obstacles were also identified to make this venture difficult but are surmountable.