WWF country director, Ivan Tumuhimbise
World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has urged the Government of Uganda to inject money into alternative sources of clean energy as a possible transition to 100% renewable energy by 2050.
A study commissioned by WWF in conjunction with Multi-Actor Partnership (MAP) that sought identify possible pathways to a transition to 100% renewable energy, shows that the transition to a high or full energy system requires substantial upfront investment costs ranging from USD 244 to USD393 billion.
Speaking at the sidelines of the Three-Day Renewable Energy Conferences, organised by the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development at Speke Resort Munyonyo, WWF country director, Ivan Tumuhimbise said investments in Solar energy, investments in the restoration, investments in efficient uses of clean cooking technologies will address the issues that are limiting the adoption of alternative sources of clean energy.
Mr. Tumuhimbise added that the deployment of technologies that increase productivity will make sectors like agriculture more effective.
“When am talking about 80% of renewable Energy, I’m talking about, not just energy for lighting, but also energy for production, and when we talk about energy production, then we’re looking at increasing productivity of the use of energy, say deployment of technologies that increase the productivity say in agriculture.” WWF country director said.
He further urged government to review the tax regime on renewable energy products beyond solar but also to include batteries and other connection facilities for easy access to connection so that more people can tap into investing in renewable energy for solar for domestic commercial use.
Mr. Tumuhimbise highlighted the issue of fake Solar energy on the market saying they discourage many people from using renewable energy products. He added that by working together with the Uganda National Bureau of Standards, this problem can be sorted.
“If you acquire a Solar system and its not working, and they don’t have after-sales service only available to have to cover the guarantee’s scheme, then it means you’re eager to be discouraged and all the people around you are likely to be discouraged.” He said.
He showed a need to transition, to stop the use of biomass by creating alternative sources of cooking energy in clean energy and policies on agriculture, forest, and other land uses.
“About 90% of Uganda’s households depend on biomass for cooking which makes it the key driver of environmental degradation.” He said.
James Kakeeto, the WWF regional energy officer, Uganda country officer, said its important that we put the right enabling environment in place to ensure that we assume the 100% renewable energy goal.
Kakeeto added we need to see that banks and financial brokers find it attractive to lend, to underwrite renewable projects.
“For Uganda to realise our target of achieving 100% renewable energy by the year 2050, its important that we put the right enabling environment to ensure that we achieve those goals. The right enabling environment, means the right policies that will make it conducive for the renewable sector to grow. That includes regulations that attract financing, to make it conducive for investors to invest their money in renewable energy. By same time, nit only foreign invested investments but even financial flows,” he added.
Kakeeto further explained that we need to ensure that there’s research and innovation within renewable sector and that means researching on viable technologies, using locally available resources. He gave an example of the abundant sunshine throughout the year, so the potential for solar energy is high.
“We need to research into that thing like local production or solar equipment like panels batteries, even assembly. Oh, it may not be possible to local production over the medium term, but you can look at other incentives like tax holidays, tax waivers that will allow these solar products or products be affordable within the country.” Kakeeto said.
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