Solar PV Atlas: Solar Power in Harmony with Nature - WWF

Solar PV Atlas
Solar PV Atlas: MADAGASCAR
Less than one-fifth of one
per cent (0.13 per cent)
of Madagascar’s land
would need to host solar
PV generation in order
to meet 100 per cent of
the country’s projected
electricity needs in 2050.
The Republic of Madagascar is home
to approximately 22.6 million people
(2012). 1 In 2009, the country’s per
capita GDP was US$438. 2 Most of the
population has no access to electricity
and cooks with biomass fuels.
Madagascar’s electricity sector is relatively
limited. Eighty per cent of Madagascans
lack access to electricity, 3 and
rural dwellers are particularly worse
off with 93 per cent lacking access to
electricity. Without access to electricity,
Madagascans use kerosene and batterybased
devices for lighting and electricity.
Though effective stop-gaps, these
solutions have significant health and
environmental costs associated with indoor
combustion and the disposal of the
batteries. Traditional biomass for cooking
is putting a heavy burden on people
and the environment. Eighty per cent of
wood consumption is for firewood and
charcoal, representing 18 million cubic
metres annually, a large share of which
is harvested at unsustainable levels. 4
The country is highly dependent on expensive
oil imports for transport and for
a large share of its electricity. In 2010
imports of petroleum products grew to
US$472 million. 5 In response to rising
global oil prices, the government and
the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate
(NPD) agreed to develop the country’s
energy production sector. Though NPD
suspended its work in 2009 due to political
instability, plans for oil and unconventional
oil exploration continue.
The dependency on polluting energy
sources is socially and economically
problematic, and it threatens one of
Madagascar’s major assets: biodiversity.
Split from the African continent
more than 160 million years ago, the
island developed its own distinct ecosystems
and extraordinary wildlife. Approximately
92 per cent of Madagascar’s
reptiles, 68 per cent of its plant life and
98 per cent of its land mammals, including
lemurs, exist naturally nowhere
else on Earth. The world’s fourth-largest
island, covering more than 144 million
acres, Madagascar is comprised of
lush lowland rainforests and mountains
along the eastern coast, dry forests in
the west, volcanic mountains in the
north and the Spiny Forest in the south.
The climate is tropical along the coast,
temperate inland, and arid in the south,
supporting a great range of biodiversity.
Sustainable renewable energy and energy
efficiency can contribute, as part of a
broad set of measures, to both promote
Malagasy socioeconomic development
and reduce the energy sector’s environmental
footprint. RE can reduce Madagascar’s
costly dependence on imported
oil, kerosene, disposable batteries, and
traditional biomass while developing
remote off-grid or mini-grid electricity
access.
Recent government pledges for Sustainable
Energy for All have yet to play out
but fit a clear need.
MADAGASCAR
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