Angola - Energy

Leaving Fossil Fuels Behind

The World Bank has been a key partner to Angola in its Covid-19 response, and its assistance has included financing support, technical assistance and fiduciary guidance. The country is committed to building its capacity to remain vigilant and responsive to the challenges of Covid-19, even as it expands its economy.

Angola’s Energy Vision | 2025

How to Build a Clean, Sustainable Future

Angola has some of the most ambitious renewable energy plans in the world. Harnessing the thunderous waters of the Kwanza River, the abundant sunshine of Benguela, the onshore wind of Namibe and the biomass generated by the vast farmlands of Malanje, Angola is transforming into a new kind of energy powerhouse. Known around the world as a leading producer of oil, the southwest African nation is repositioning its economy to meet its future energy needs with clean and renewable sources. In recent years, it has quadrupled production of hydropower, but this only amounts to 20% of the estimated potential of 18,200 MW, among the highest in Africa. The government has identified 100 locations for micro-hydropower stations, and aims to raise Angola’s electrification rate from the current 42% to 60% by 2025.

ADVANTAGE ANGOLA

We have huge untapped reserves of hydroelectric power. Hydropower in Angola is everywhere.”

National Director, Environment and Climate Action, Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Environment

Giza Gaspar Martins

The clean energy investment opportunity in Angola is clear. “We need to take more advantage of our hydroelectric potential,” says António Henriques Da Silva, Executive Chairman of AIPEX, Angola’s agency for private investment and export promotion. The most stunning of Angola’s water-based energy resources is the Laúca hydropower project, which spans high cliffs overlooking the Kwanza, where the river crosses the provincial border between Cuanza Sul and Malanje. The project first produced power in 2019 and now has a capacity of more than 2,000 MW, making it the second-largest hydropower plant in Africa.

António Henriques da Silva

Executive Chairman, AIPEX

At COP26, President Lourenço pledged to increase Angola’s use of renewable energy to 70% by 2025

António Henriques da Silva, Executive Chairman Angola’s Agency for Private Investment and Export Promotion (AIPEX), believes that the country’s 1,600-kilometer (1,000-mile) coastline can enable it to transform the African economy by being the international gateway for landlocked nations such as DRC, Zambia and Botswana. “We are going to be able to create the value chains that will help us to grow our economy, but also to grow the economies of other countries,” he says. These advanced supply chains “will enable Africa as a whole and Angola, in particular, to play a much stronger role in the global economy.” Angola’s government has created a development plan designed to support “multimodal transportation through the joining of ports, railways and roads,” explains Ricardo Viegas de Abreu, Minister of Transport. Angola’s advantage is its strategic position with an Atlantic platform. Its six major ports are benefiting from government-backed modernization and the country is looking to introduce private operators with international credentials. “We have been investing not only in infrastructure, improving ports’ capacity and operational conditions, we have also invested in operational standards,” says de Abreu. Angolan ports comply with International Maritime Organization conventions. As Angola’s transportation ambitions are on their way to being realized, the country has partnered with the International Civil Aviation Organization and introduced a new airspace management program to increase safety, capacity and efficiency. In the capital, Luanda, an integrated ticketing system enables customers to take a bus, train or ferry using a single ticket. “It will bring a great improvement to urban mobility,” says de Abreu. Angola is working with experts from the Netherlands to maximize supply chain efficiency in the transport of agricultural goods, he says, so “our products can be placed on shelves in Angola and abroad in good condition for consumption.” Angola’s growing transport sector currently contributes 12% to GDP, and de Abreu asserts that it can be the game changer for the entire Southern African economy. Echoing Manuel, he points out that “This is a sector that galvanizes and catalyzes economic development.”

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While Angola has historically been a significant producer of oil and gas, with current oil production at 1.2 million barrels per day, this sector has been almost entirely focused on export. Angola, Martins, points out, is “a country that, as regards its energy consumption, does not require the use of fossil fuels. Her nature offers all the energy potential required to supply its economy.” By committing itself to renewable energy sources, Angola is not only diversifying its economy, but taking a leading role in the fight against climate change.

SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

Sugar Rush

A Fertile Land With a Favorable Climate

AGRICULTURE

“Sugar cane captures energy from the sun through photosynthesis, so we can say our field is a giant solar panel,” says Luís Bagorro Júnior, Deputy General Director of Biocom, an agro-industrial project that has been harvesting sugar cane since 2015.

On 28,000 hectares in Malanje Province—Angola’s breadbasket— cutting-edge technology is used to turn sugar cane and its fiber (bagasse) into three valuable products: sugar, ethanol and electricity.

BACK

Biocom produced 120,000 metric tons of sugar—41% of the domestic market—for Angola’s food industry and supermarket shoppers in 2021. The 20,000 cubic meters of neutral ethanol it produces are mainly supplied to the beverage sector and can also be used by pharmaceutical companies. The 70 MW of electricity it produces are bought by the state. Production is set to double, says Bagorro Júnior. “At full capacity, in four or five years, we will produce 250,000 tons of sugar, 36,000 cubic meters of ethanol and 136 MW of electricity.” As well as producing clean energy, this project has created 3,400 jobs. Biocom also supports five schools in the local community of Cacuso and has placed 500 children into the education system.

The Angolan government wants renewable energy to account for 70% of its fuel mix by 2025. “We have a strongly hydro energy mix as about 60% of our energy is produced from water sources, and we have huge untapped reserves of hydroelectric power,” says Giza Gaspar Martins, National Director for Environment and Climate Action at Angola’s Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Environment. In addition to its existing network of hydropower plants and the identified micro-hydro locations, Angola is building another giant project, the Caculo Cabaça hydropower plant, which will be even larger than Laúca. “Hydropower in Angola is everywhere,” says Martins. So is sun and wind. The development of a 188 MW photovoltaic solar plant at Biópio in Benguela Province is the largest project of its kind in sub-Saharan Africa. Martins also notes the “significant potential for wind power” in Namibe Province and the Central Highlands region of the country. Land is another abundance natural resource in Angola. Twice the size of France and with only 15% of its arable land under cultivation, the country has the potential to generate clean biomass energy as a biproduct of sugar cane production. Biocom, an agro-industrial project based in Malanje Province, is producing electricity, as well as ethanol and high-quality sugar, from sugar cane pulp, and the project has created thousands of jobs.

A Land Full of Rich and Varied Natural Resources

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Whether Roasted or Brewed, Catering To All

Manufacturing

Martins first became involved in this effort in 2009 as an Angolan representative on sustainable economic development at the COP15 climate change summit in Copenhagen, and he chaired a climate change group representing “least developed countries” at the UN and subsequent COP summits. In October 2021, Angola introduced its National Strategy for Climate Change, prioritizing the implementation of a low-carbon development policy to eradicate poverty. “One of the challenges we face is to eliminate the correlation between economic growth and the emission of greenhouse gases,” says Martins. “Most of our emissions derive from the production of oil, but this oil is not consumed in Angola.” If Angola is to realize its green potential and diversify its economy at a pace that meets the expectations of its youthful population (75% of which is under 25), it will need private investment. President João Lourenço’s government has implemented reforms that have opened markets and allow investors easy, unrestricted access. The government has “an important role” in introducing these investment opportunities, says Da Silva, “so that we are able to grow and enable industries to rely on much cleaner energy sources.” At COP26 in November, President Lourenço stated that Angola would increase its renewable energy capacity (including hydropower) to 70% by 2025, one of the highest percentages in the world in terms of clean energy use. The renewal of Angola is underway.

Linking Southern Africa to the Rest of the World

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Source: Angola’s Ministry of Energy and Water, 2019

For more information about investment opportunities in Angola visit AIPEX , a one-stop-shop created just for you.

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ENERGY

Tourism & CULTURE

MINING

AGRICULTURE

MANUFACTURING

Infrastructure

ENERGY

Tourism & CULTURE

A Land Full of Rich and Varied Natural Resources

MINING

AGRICULTURE

A Fertile Land With a Favorable Climate

AGRICULTURE

Whether Roasted or Brewed, Catering To All

Manufacturing

Linking Southern Africa to the Rest of the World

Infrastructure

Exploring a Unique Culture in an Unspoiled Landscape

TOURISM

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Exploring a Unique Culture in an Unspoiled Landscape

TOURISM