Review of energy systems deployment and development of offshore wind energy resource map at the coastal regions of Africa

The objective of this work is to evaluate the offshore wind conditions at coastal regions for energy resource map development. Thus, the review of installed energy technologies for electricity access across African nations as well as the offshore wind resource distribution for energy development based on satellite observations derived from remote sensing systems is presented. It is believed that ideal location for the electricity generation, renewable energy development and markets could be identified by determining the enormous wind resource distribution at the coastal zones. Thus, 6-hourly surface wind dataset recorded for a period of 2001-2011 across the coasts were proposed for identifying potential turbine sites. Based on the seasonal climate variability, the energy distribution maps of the offshore wind resource at 10 and 160 m heights were assessed from East to South, West and North coasts of Africa. In addition, the validity of satellite observations in processing of CCMP L3.0 wind for energy resource assessment across Africa is investigated. Furthermore, the offshore energy potential of two typical turbine (small- and utility-scale) models is evaluated based on the wind resource variation for these periods. For sustainable energy development, results revealed that the coastal zones possess excellent offshore wind energy resource potential for supporting electricity requirements. Annual and seasonal capacity factors of both small and large-scale turbines across the coastal zone were also assessed, ranging between 17.6 and 51.2%. In the achievement of 2020-2030 energy transition goals from the conventional to clean and diversified energy mix as well as a low carbon society, the studied findings offer useful energy resource information for a sustainable project and increasing penetrations of large-scale wind power on the electric grids across Africa.