Senegal is a country in a hurry, eager to conquer the challenges it faces in diversifying its energy sources and making energy accessible to its entire population. It is among the few African countries to have discovered gas deposits. Mozambique, Tanzania, Egypt, Mauritania and South Africa and Senegal account for 40 percent of global deposits discovered between 2011 and 2018. Despite having huge reserves of oil and gas, Dakar also aims to make renewables a significant part of its energy mix, with the goal of reaching 30 percent by 2030. Thanks to successful policy initiatives, Senegal has also managed to guarantee access to energy to 70 percent of its population, with the aim of achieving 100 percent coverage by 2025. Forests, one of the country’s fundamental resources, are also among its priorities. The country’s Minister of Petroleum and Energy, Mouhamadou Makhtar Cissé, is firm in giving this assurance: “We are deeply committed to protecting our forest resources and all our natural resources in general.”

Yes, we have huge reserves, but this should not divert our attention from the issue of resource depletion. We cannot continue to live in a world of exponential development. Climate change means that renewable energy is the right way forward. Even though Africa has to think primarily about its economic development, this issue affects everyone and Senegal wants to be a leader in the field of renewables and increase their share of the energy mix. Therefore, despite the country’s huge gas and oil reserves and the new discoveries, we are continuing to expand our policy of diversifying energy production. Our goal is to reach 30 percent of renewables in the energy mix by 2030. We are at 20 percent today.

I believe we need to continue investing in new technologies and to monitor the system. The introduction of renewable energy allows users to save money and recourse to new technologies is therefore fundamental. We have therefore launched technological innovations in Senegal that will allow us to guarantee universal access to electricity. We will do this by exploiting all the technologies—grid, off-grid, mini-grid—but also via the photovoltaic kits distributed in rural areas, where the greatest efforts must be made to achieve universal electrification by 2025.

We are deeply committed to protecting our forest resources and all our natural resources in general. Just six months since his re-election, the President of Senegal has launched an ambitious initiative, one of the most important ever seen, to create a “green Senegal.” For this purpose, the head of state has established an agency for reforestation. Countering the use of coal and wood as energy sources is central to our efforts. For this purpose, we are not only working on a macro level, to improve the coverage of our country’s electricity grid using various technologies mentioned (grid, off-grid, mini-grid and photovoltaic kits distributed in rural areas), but have also developed programs to install and disseminate biodigestors as part of the Programme National de Biogaz (PNB). These plants allow the development of organic fertilizers to fertilize the soil starting from basic resources, increasing the agricultural performance of rural populations and at the same time providing them with clean energy for cooking and lighting with biogas. These are extremely important programs. Safeguarding forests is a priority for the Senegalese government.

The author: Simona Manna

Ci impegniamo a fondo nella protezione delle nostre risorse forestali e di tutte le risorse naturali in generale. A soli sei mesi dalla sua rielezione, il Presidente della Repubblica senegalese ha lanciato un’iniziativa ambiziosa, una delle più importanti mai viste finora, il cui obiettivo è quello di creare un “Senegal verde”. A tal fine, il capo di stato ha appena istituito un’agenzia per la riforestazione. Contrastare l’impiego del carbone e del legno come fonti di energia è al centro dei nostri sforzi. Per questo lavoriamo non solo a livello macro per migliorare la copertura della rete elettrica del nostro paese tramite le diverse tecnologie già menzionate (grid, off-grid, mini-grid e kit fotovoltaici da distribuire nelle zone rurali), ma abbiamo anche sviluppato programmi di installazione e disseminazione di biodigestori nell’ambito del Programme National de Biogaz (PNB). Questi impianti consentono di sviluppare concimi organici per fertilizzare il suolo a partire da risorse di base, aumentando il rendimento agricolo delle popolazioni rurali e fornendo loro al contempo un’energia pulita per la cucina e per l’illuminazione tramite il biogas. Si tratta di programmi di grandissima importanza. La salvaguardia delle foreste è una priorità per il governo senegalese.