Modern energy services are crucial to human well-being and to a country’s economic development; and yet 1.2 billion people are without access to electricity. It is recognized that the central grid is unlikely to reach many remote areas in the near future: many of these communities will have low electricity consumption, making the costs of extending the grid unaffordable. Given the evident potential of solar energy for African countries, using stand-alone and mini-grid photovoltaic (PV) systems could be an alternative approach to meet the objective of universal electrification.

This dataset presents the ratio between the optimized battery size (kWh) and PV array size (kWp) for PV mini-grids using Li-ion batteries to store electricity (instead of traditional lead-acid batteries). It includes layers modeling two distinct usage behaviors:

• Low energy consumption patterns: where the majority of energy is used during the night-time.
• High energy consumption patterns: where the majority of energy is used during the day-time.

A higher ratio means that the battery size needed to satisfy the same electricity demand produced by the PV system is larger. Used in combination with other sources, these data can help governments, local authorities, and non-governmental organisations to investigate the suitability of PV mini-grids for the electrification of regions where access to electricity is lacking.

This dataset maps regions across Africa with high geothermal energy exploration potential, identifying areas where further research and investment are most likely to yield significant returns. The mapping represents a synthesis of the Indicator Analysis performed by TNO (Hofstra, 2023), specifically selecting the most and least favorable technical outcomes under the assumption of a clay-poor sandstone (CP) compaction model.

To ensure structural robustness and account for geological uncertainty, the indicator results have been projected onto four distinct geological basin models:

• BGS TARGET Model: Projecting indicator values onto basin shapefiles defined by the British Geological Survey.
• Evenick Model: Utilizing sedimentary basin structures characterized by surface porosity and thickness according to Evenick’s framework.
• Getech Model: Integrating regional basin delineations to refine spatial prospectivity based on gravity and crustal structure data.
• Robertson CGG Model: Applying indicator analysis to high-resolution basin geometries to evaluate technical performance.

Key Indicators & Methodology

The favorable results displayed in these maps are derived from a multi-criteria evaluation which includes:

• Thermal Performance: Integration of the 3D conductive thermal model to identify viable reservoir temperatures at depth.
• Reservoir Quality: Assessment of potential hydraulic transmissivity based on depth-dependent porosity and permeability for sedimentary aquifers.
• Economic Viability: Calculations involving the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) to distinguish areas where energy extraction is most cost-effective.

This layer is part of the Geothermal Atlas for Africa developed within the LEAP-RE project.

• Cooling Absorption System;
• Refrigeration Absorption System;
• Binary ORC Power Plant;
• Flash Power Plant;
• Heat for Direct Use;
• Heat for High Temperature Heat Pump;

• base case scenario;
• upside scenario, modelling a better fluid flow;
• up up side, modelling both better fluid flow and higher underground temperatures.

• Direct Use;
• High Temperature Heat Pump;

• base case scenario;
• upside scenario, modelling a better fluid flow;
• up up side, modelling both better fluid flow and higher underground temperatures.

• base case scenario;
• upside scenario;
• up up side scenario.

African countries have an evident potential for solar energy. Knowing what amount of solar radiation reaches the earth's surface is of particular interest for solar photovoltaic (PV) installations. It can be represented by the average annual potential energy production (or yield): the total amount of electricity (kWh) produced in one year by a 1 kWp PV system at optimal angle, expressed in kWh/kWp.

Number of maternal deaths during a given time period per 100 000 live births during the same time period. The lower the number of healthcare facilities with access to electricity the greater the potential for decentralised renewable energies to reduce maternal mortality.

Modern energy services are crucial to human well-being and to a country’s economic development. Yet 1.2 billion people worldwide live without access to electricity. It is recognized that the central grid is unlikely to reach many remote areas in the near future: many of these communities will have low electricity consumption, making the costs of extending the grid unaffordable. Given the evident potential of solar energy for African countries, using stand-alone and mini-grid photovoltaic (PV) systems could be an alternative approach to meet the objective of universal electrification. This layer compares the costs of electricity produced by solar photovoltaic and diesel systems, the two prevailing off-grid options for rural electrification in Africa. The map shows the difference between solar- and diesel-based electricity production cost (cents USD/kWh) at one square-kilometre resolution. PV minigrid represent the least-cost electrification option in the orange-to-yellow areas, whereas cheaper diesel is depicted in purple. The higher the contrast, the larger the cost difference.